Ellington

Oil and gas company CITGO provided more than 1,000 energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs to Jackson residents last weekend.

Ward 2 City Councilman Chokwe Lumumba said in a statement that he will announce a date and time for future bulb distribution, and thanked CITGO and the Venezuelan government for providing the light bulbs. Petroleos de Venezuela owns CITGO.

"CITGO is leading the way in corporate responsibility, something that companies here in the U.S. can learn from," Lumumba said in the statement.

The program is part of a 17-city initiative to distribute 500,000 light bulbs to about 50,000 low-income houses in the nation. The light bulbs will save about $30 million in energy costs, according to a statement from CITGO.

Children's Study Gets Started

The National Children's Study hosted a ribbon cutting last week at the Jackson Medical Mall to highlight a long-term study of children's health in the area.

Hinds County is one of 105 locations around the nation selected for the study. The University of Mississippi Medical Center is the research home for Hinds County, and local partners include the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children and the state Department of Health. The study might add a location in Coahoma County in the future.

The study will follow more than 100,000 children around the country from before birth until age 21 and look at how the children's environments affect their development and health, according to the study's website. Environmental factors include neighborhoods, schools, food, water and other things that can influence a child's health.

UMMC Wins Award for Stroke Education

The University of Mississippi Health Care Multidisciplinary Team has won an award for its efforts to educate people about strokes.

The National Stroke Association chose the UMHC team as one of six winners of its annual Raising Awareness in Stroke Excellence Award. The award program was established this year to recognize individuals and groups who have helped raise stroke awareness, a statement from the University of Mississippi Medical Center said.

The UMHC team educates people throughout the Jackson area on how to detect strokes and factors that put people at higher risks for strokes. Within the past year, the team has reached more than 6,000 people, the statement said.