An epidemic of childhood obesity has state and local public health advocates working overtime devising strategies for getting kids to eat healthier foods and get more exercise.

“This is an epidemic that’s been nearly 100 years in the making,” said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the state health director. “And, while we don’t have 100 years to reverse it, we’re not going to reverse it overnight.”

The statistics, Mills admits, are alarming:

Since 1980, overweight/obesity rates nationally have doubled among children and tripled among adolescents.

A 2002 survey of kindergarten students conducted in Maine found that 36 percent were overweight or obese based on their body mass index, a formula that factors weight and height.

The 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 25 percent of Maine’s high school students were overweight, as compared to 24 percent nationwide.

Overweight children have a 70 percent chance of being overweight adults, putting them at risk for health problems linked to weight, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and several types of cancer.

“This may be the first generation in America that doesn’t live as long as their parents, because of obesity,” Mills said. “It’s a very visible problem; just look around at any school playground. And, if these kids enter adulthood overweight, we’re in big trouble.”

Locally, a citizens group that has dubbed itself the Youth Obesity Think Tank has been meeting periodically over the past year to develop approaches to confronting the problem.

“We’re starting to peel back the layers of the onion to see what’s causing the problem,” said Dr. Jonathan Fanburg, an Ellsworth pediatrician who serves as the medical advisor to the Ellsworth schools. “And we don’t just want to identify the problem. We want to make sure that we can handle the problem and do something about it.”

Fanburg said the group he’s helped to organize includes about 25 members from a wide cross-section of the community. It includes parents, students, teachers, school principals, dietitians and representative of the local banking, business and medical communities.

“I’ve found that people have a real interest in this topic,” Fanburg said. “They recognize it’s a major health problem. I’m very optimistic that, at some point, the community will put this into overdrive. We hope to have a master plan by March.”

Among those involved in the effort is Kelly McKenney. As the school health coordinator for the Ellsworth School Department, she’s working within all the public schools to encourage students to make healthy eating choices and to stay physically active.

“The students at the Knowlton School began the school year by walking together as a community for 10 minutes every day before classes,” she said. “At the high school, we’ve added a healthy eating class that encourages good nutrition and physical activity.”

Amy Peterson-Roper, the principal of the Dr. Charles C. Knowlton School, said the school’s 230 kindergarten and first- and second-grade students walk about a quarter-mile each school day.

“Right now the students are in training for a walk-a-thon,” she said. “But we’ll keep walking beyond that and charting their mileage. The 2008 Olympics are in Beijing, and we’ll be map out the route from Maine, across the Atlantic. We will talk about the cultures of the countries we go through, talking about nutrition and what they do to stay healthy. The route is about 7,000 miles.”

Knowlton School students were recently treated to a performance by FOODPLAY, an Emmy Award-winning live theatre show that encourages children to take charge of growing up healthy and fit. Sponsored by the Hannaford grocery chain, the event combined juggling, music, magic and audience participation in encouraging students to embrace healthy lifestyles.

Fanburg said the Youth Obesity Think Tank is also working with food service directors who plan and prepare breakfast and lunch menus for meals served to Ellsworth public school students.

“We’ll meet with them again this fall,” he said. “We’re starting to look at what drives their decision-making and what we can do to help them plan healthy meals. What I’ve seen is that they are eager for any information they can get on this topic. They say they need better information on what they are doing right and wrong.”

Mills said she’s encouraged to see that Maine’s childhood obesity numbers are beginning to plateau.

“The numbers are starting to stabilize, which is good, because they’ve been growing at epidemic proportions,” she said. “It’s not good enough, but it is good news. While we’ve got a long way to go, we have made a lot of progress.”