From weight loss to losing inches to eating better: the motivations vary but the goal of a healthier lifestyle is shared by participants in Let's Get Moving Northern Michigan.
The Grand Traverse Area branch, which includes Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties, kicked off the 100-day summer program Thursday evening. Held at the Hagerty Center, 250 people attended to sign up, get a free pedometer, play games, listen to a motivational speaker and walk a mile together as their first event. The speaker was Graham Howard of the Priority Health Cycling Team.
"Our troop is doing it,” said Gary Francisco, assistant leader of Boy Scout Troop 229 based at the East Bay Fire and Rescue station. "The boys do a lot of hiking and backpacking trips so they're into exercise and fitness anyway.”
Let's Get Moving Northern Michigan is sponsored in the Grand Traverse area by Munson Medical Center and Priority Health. Other participating communities include Alpena, Cadillac, Charlevoix, Petoskey and Grayling.
Through August 25, participants will log their miles or equivalent miles every week, tracking their progress as individuals or teams and qualifying for prizes. The program has a list of activities from running to dancing to gardening with the number of minutes required to equal a mile walked. Points may also be earned each day for healthy choices such as eating enough fiber, drinking adequate water and consuming six to nine servings of fruits and vegetables.
Participants log their miles weekly by either turning in coupons at drop off points around the region or by entering them on the Web site. Day by day, mile by mile, the numbers add up: last year, Grand Traverse, Antrim and Benzie counties combined included 1,682 people and totaled 336,974 miles.
"It's a neat way to send a message to people and yet create some fun around it and just reach a lot of people,” said Diane Butler, manager of community health for Munson Health Care and chair of the Let's Get Moving in the area. "They can sign up any time throughout the summer, even the last week if they want. We don't care, we just want people to get active.”
Butler has already heard a Let's Get Moving buzz around town.
"Someone just came in today and was telling me she was at one of her kid's games and there were ladies in the stands talking about Let's Get Moving and how they could get together and how they could increase their fiber,” she said Monday. "That's really good, because that's who we want to try and reach.”
Solbeig Gustafson is part of a dynamic team, the Lake Ridge Rovers, who are joining forces for the second year. Members range in age from their 50s to 86 and last year the 20 members completed a range of activities. Kicking off their team effort May 1, weeks before the formal program began, they have already logged both miles and laughter.
"We have a calendar of events set up for the month,” said Gustafson, who has participated in Let's Get Moving since it began three years ago. "We do something almost every day. Our goal is to extend our activity level.”
Activities so far in 2007 include a walking club, a pep song ("Take Me Out With the Rovers”) and meeting by the bike trail, taking a ride and then stopping for breakfast along the way. They also meet Wednesday evenings to walk together downtown, a mile away, for the Downtown Dinner and a Movie program offered by the City Opera House.
Along the way, these retirees are not only getting healthier but making friend in their new condominium community.
"Getting to know your neighbors, that was a big component of it, a really big component of it,” said Gustafson.
For more information on the Let's Get Moving Northern Michigan program, see their Web site at www.lgmnm.org.