Residents Seek New Plan for Active Transportation in Lebanon, IN



Plans for more active transportation in the small city of Lebanon, Indiana are underway. According to a news story from reporter.net nearly 20 residents gathered in December 2014 to discuss plans for a proposed bike & pedestrian master plan. The plan came after local residents met in February for an active transportation workshop. Shortly after the workshop a steering committee was formed and engineers were hired to help residents formulate the plan. A draft of the latest plan was presented at a city meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 17th, 2014. Read the full story ...

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Plans for Orange County Bike Park in the Works



How can we succeed in getting more kids outside playing and being physically active? Why not a bike park? Bike parks are recreation facilities dedicated to the purpose of biking. They include various types of trails and pump tracks---segments of a trail or track that is designed for bicycling without pedaling. If you've never heard of a bike park, you'll want to know about the The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA)'s Bike Park Initiative and about the work they are doing to aid cities in making biking accessible and attractive for all.  The Bike Park Initiative which was developed in partnership with the SRAM Cycling Fund and People for Bikes, identifies promising local government agencies and provides them with technical assistance to create state of ...

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How One Mom Fought Junk Food in School and Won



The blog School Bites is run by a mom who wants to provide the healthiest and most nutritious food for her children. At home she can help teach them healthy eating, but at school her children and other students are exposed to a lot junk food. Over the past couple of years she has been fighting to make the food culture a healthier place in her local school district and here is what she had to say on her blog about what she accomplished: What finally worked was a stronger dis­trict well­ness pol­icy com­bined with teacher edu­ca­tion (SEE Healthy Class­rooms Ini­tia­tive: Edu­cat­ing Teach­ers on Healthy School Cel­e­bra­tions, Non-Food Rewards & More). I man­aged to get a spot on a com­mit­tee that was con­vened to update our pol­icy accord­ing to the ...

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Miami-Dade County Elementary Schools Use Scan Code Technology to Increase Minutes of Physical Activity



Elementary schools belonging to the Miami-Dade County Public School (MDCPS) system in Florida (66% Latino) are exploring new ways of getting students to be active throughout the school day. According to a blog post from PreventObesity.org, in addition to providing students with 30 minutes of daily physical education (PE), the district is now using the concepts of indoor fitness trails and scan technology to provide students with more minutes of physical activity. School hallways are transformed into indoor fitness trails with QR codes that are placed throughout hallways. Teachers schedule a time for using the fitness trail and stop where QR codes are located. They are then scanned with an iPad or mobile device that has a QR reader app installed on it. Once a QR code is ...

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Plans for Improvements to San Francisco’s Second Street Are in the Works



A street makeover for San Francisco's Second Street is in the works. According to a news article from socketsite.com plans for the upgrades to Second Street include: bike lanes, sidewalks, plants, and safe roadways---all part of what a true complete street should look like. This project aims to make Second Street a complete street, or a street designed for all road users. According to a factsheet from the San Francisco Public Works department, after gathering all the necessary permits, construction for the project could begin in 2016 and be complete within about a year. Read more about this ...

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Community Teamwork Brings A New Park to Tomball, TX



Thanks to the support of community volunteers, two national organizations, and a private donation, kids living in the city of Tomball, TX can celebrate a new park! On the morning of December 5, a team of over 200 volunteers from 40 different organizations, gathered to donate their time and talents towards something that will benefit everyone---a new park. When kids have access to nearby parks, they're more likely to be physically active and healthy. That's why in  2011, Kaboom! and Humana teamed up to bring more parks to communities in need across the nation. According to a news article from the Houston Chronicle, in 2013, Humana's CEO Bruce Broussard, donated 14 acres of land to the city of Tomball. "I think they were skeptical at first," he stated in The Chronicle. "But ...

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Update: Mobile Market Coming to the Orlando Area



Many areas in central Florida lack easy access to fresh, healthy foods. Registered Dietitian Roniece Weaver recognized the problem 20-years ago in the neighborhoods around the center of Orlando. She teamed up with a few other dietitians to form Hebni Nutrition Consultants to educate people on how to prevent diet related diseases. But she wanted to do more. The group wanted to give the neighborhood better access to healthy staples like apples, lettuce, bananas, and tomatoes. So they figured they had two options: find local stores that will expand their fresh produce offerings, or try something a bit different---a mobile farmers' market. Weaver says the mobile market is a better solution. “We can expand our reach and be anywhere on any given day, and reach different ...

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Miami Parents Make Plans For First Ever ‘Kidical Mass’ Event



A group of parents in Miami, FL, who are seeking to ensure the safety of their children as they ride their bikes, is organizing the city's first ever "Kidical Mass" event. The event is set to take place in January 2015. According to a blog post from TransitMiami.com, the idea for Kidical Mass originated back in 2008 in Eugene, OR. The event has since spread to over 12 communities throughout Canada & the US. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness about the importance of respecting all road users, and to teach kids and parents riding and safety skills.  The ride will be approximately 1-3 miles and will last about an hour. Children are expected to wear helmets and to ride with a guardian. Kids of all ages are encouraged to attend and to wear their favorite ...

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Buncombe Co. Brings Healthy Programs to A Predominantly Latino Neighborhood



In 2012, health officials from Buncombe County, North Carolina partnered with a local hospitals and community organizations, to conduct a community-wide health assessment. What they learned was that close to  30% of Buncombe adults were obese; 33% were overweight; 37% of adults had high blood pressure; and 7.9% of the community suffered from diabetes. After learning about the dire health challenges that residents faced,  the county health department quickly took action by coming up with a plan to improve the health of the community.   As part of the plan the health department formed local partnerships and came up with six health priorities which included goals to address obesity and improve child health. These key partnerships and collaborations, led to the formation a number of ...

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