The Cook County Active Living Steering Committee has done a lot for the community— establishing a Safe Routes to School program, finding grant funds for a solar-powered speed monitoring sign and speed bumps, and hosting bike safety rallies. On November 14, the ALSC is hosting the Cook County Active Living Summit, a full day of information and conversation on how Cook County can continue to be a safe and active community.
Organizers of the November 14 Cook County Active Living Summit promise that the event won’t be your “average meeting.” The Grand Marais Active Living Steering Committee is hosting the event and 62 people have already signed up.
Kristin Wharton, Active Living Steering Committee coordinator, explained that the summit is an opportunity for community leaders, elected officials, business leaders, transportation professionals, citizens, walking and biking advocates, seniors, and health leaders to share a conversation about active living in Cook County. Wharton said the meeting begins with an optional “Walk to School” event with former-Congressman Jim Oberstar and will include “good food, toe-tapping music, stretch breaks, and discussions,” ending with pie from the Pie Place Café.
“Active Living is the ability to be active throughout our daily lives—in small ways like scraping the windshield in the morning, to bigger ways like doing errands in town on foot,” said Wharton. “Moving our bodies throughout the day has big impacts for health and well-being. The thing is, the environment we live and work in, and the policies in our communities and worksites play a huge roll in our ability to be active.”
Wharton said that the decision to run errands on foot or bike has a lot to do with the difficulty of crossing traffic, traffic speeds, and the location of sidewalks, in addition to our own motivation. When you factor in a person’s age and ability level, a simple errand can become much more daunting on foot.
“This is where the conversations will begin at the Active Living Summit,” said Wharton, “at the place where policies touch our lives. We’ll be talking about things like MnDOT’s policies on where we can legally place a crosswalk across Hwy. 61, or the city and county snowplowing procedures in the school zone, or worksite accommodations for staff to exercise on breaks. At the Active Living Summit, we’ll be talking about how to make our local policies better suited to the values and needs of our community.”
Speakers at the summit include former 8th District Representative Jim Oberstar, a national champion of active living; Matthew Dyrdahl, a certified planner with the Minnesota Department of Health who works with communities on active living projects, and Charles Marohn, planner with the nonprofit Strong Towns, which helps communities navigate decisions over how to use limited land and resources for maximum benefit to the community.
In addition, the North Shore Hospital’s Charlie Butter and Margo Furcht will speak on a panel about the hospital’s exciting new worksite wellness program.
Registration is required by November 7 to attend the Cook County Active Living Summit on November 14 at the ACA, so call or click to signup now. There is no cost to attend, and a lunch will be provided by the Pie Place Café.
The event is being supported by grant funding from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation, the Statewide Health Improvement Program/ Minnesota Department of Health, the Knight Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic and Cook County Public Health and Human Services.
For more information, contact Kristin Wharton at the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic at Kristin@sawtoothmountainclinic.org or 387-2330 ext 150.
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