Coalition to fight local obesity by funding trails, gym
Friday, November 3, 2006 7:11 AM PST
By Barbara LaBoe
Printable version
E-mail this articleA Cowlitz County healthy lifestyle coalition has received a needed shot in the arm from funds created to combat obesity in Southwest Washington and Oregon.
Pathways 2020 and Cowlitz on the Move was awarded $74,454 for a three-year period to help with projects such as a regional trails program and a community gymnasium. The money also bolsters the coalition's coffers. The group stated in 2005 with a $50,000 state grant.
"This helps us keep everything moving ahead because without it, we would have been scaling back," said Paul Youmans of Pathways 2020 who helps lead the coalition along with Cowlitz County Health Department workers. "And just within the first year and a half, the success the community has had makes it really important that the coalition continues."
The grant is from the Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Nutrition, a fund created through contributions from Kaiser Permanente Northwest, CareOregon, PacificSource Charitable Foundation, and The Northwest Health Foundation. The grant goals are to promote physical activity and healthy eating locally.
Obesity plagues Cowlitz County, according to health department. The recent Pathways 2020 report card found 67.6 percent of residents are obese or overweight, higher than the national average.
The coalition works on a wide variety of issues ranging from healthier eating habits to access to safe, well-lit sidewalks. Its two main priorities, though, are a proposed regional trail system and adding a community gym to the Toutle River Ranch/Youth and Family Link building, 907 Douglas St., in Longview.
The trail system, which will go before the Cowlitz County Commissioners and Council of Governments early next year, would highlight all existing trails and also build more so residents could walk from Castle Rock to Woodland.
The community gym is phase two of the Youth and Family Link building that opened this year in Longview. Youmans said coalition members are particularly happy about the location which, combined with the nearby Victoria Freeman Park, Seventh Avenue Fields, McClelland Arts Center and YMCA will create a healthy recreation corridor
The coalition's grant money won't help with actual construction of those projects, but does allow for planning and fund-raising support, Youmans said.
The coalition, which meets monthly, has organized nutrition education programs, launched a Web site highlighting exercise activities in the county and worked with several other community groups to promote fun runs and other activities. They also hope to reduce hunger and food shortages, increase access to healthy food and help with tobacco cessation programs. The coalition's recently adopted motto is: Eat smart, play hard and breathe free.
The coalition meets the third Tuesday of the month at 3 p.m. in the Cowlitz County Health Department, 1952 Ninth Ave. in Longview and is open to anyone interested in helping promote healthy lifestyles in the community. For details, call Youmans at 423-8704 or Shannon Gourley at the Cowlitz County Health Department at 501-1228.
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