Holly Hayes from the Institute for Public Health Education and Research provided some great information in her session at the Winter 2014 Professional Development Training in Seguin on utilizing downtown to address community health issues. The Round Table discussions also brought out some great ideas on how to adapt what you’ve already got downtown (or in your parks) to increase your community’s fitness; develop informational programs to help your community go about it and perhaps create new health-based activities as part of your Main Street programming. The list below outlines these ideas:

  •  Outdoor bench work outs
  • Do mile marking signage in your downtown (half-mile, quarter-mile etc. similar to what indoor shopping malls do)
  • Have a community walk, run etc.
  •  Have mister stations during the summer months to better encourage downtown walking
  • Expand farmer’s markets by with increased programming  around the market such as fitness activities, lectures on healthy cooking etc., demonstrations
  • Implement an incentive-based program such as a walk/run etc. activity over time in which each participant’s entry form becomes part of a raffle.
  • Do your own downtown version of Map My Walk or Map My Run (some Texas cities already included in these lists!)  http://www.mapmywalk.com/us/  or http://www.mapmyrun.com/us/.  Those completing the courses for both your Map My program and the incentives program could be spotlighted in an ongoing social media campaign.
  •  Adopt internal policies in your workplace – i.e. only healthy snacks at meetings. Holly mentioned some places she knew of that had also done this for their events! Another idea was to look at providing booth fee discounts for vendors at events who had healthy options.
  •  Beth provided an Amarillo example where there are stations just for seniors.
  •  Making car-centric streets more pedestrian-friendly to encourage a more active downtown – all things that can be accomplished with Texas Capital Fund grants, taking on Complete Streets-type philosophies and policies in your community…  http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/complete-streets
  • Downtown dog parks
  • Regularly scheduled activities in the downtown like yoga or Zumba
  • Having a downtown fitness center as part of the business recruitment strategy

Lake Harrison Park - Harrison, Arkansas

May 2015 - Marie Oehlerking, Project Design Assistant

While exploring downtown Harrison on a family trip a few months back, I noticed a nice little park a block off the courthouse square. The park had the typical playground and picnic tables with a few miles of walking/biking trails around a lake. The best part of the park though was several inventive fitness stations (see picture below). These were not your typical cardio / calisthenics type fitness stations. These are actual weight machines that utilize your body weight.

After a little bit of research I found that these fitness stations were installed through a grant program. Here's the full explanation from the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention website -

"Boone County received $2,500 ($6,578 requested) to implement Joint Use Agreement training in support of its “Community Fitness Area: Middle School EAST Lab Attacks Obesity” program in Harrison. Harrison Middle School East Lab Students (5th & 6th grade) identified the potential to increase access to physical activity through the installation of additional outdoor fitness equipment on the Lake Harrison Trail between three schools, three low-income neighborhoods, and the downtown business district – reaching a potential 3,250 individuals. Two students presented their proposal to the City Council, resultin in Resolution 1125 that defined a partnership between North Arkansas Partners for Health Education (NAPHE), Harrison Middle School East Lab, and the City of Harrison. Three pieces of outdoor fitness equipment were purchased – a pull up and dip station, lat pull down station, and dual leg extension station."  (Source: http://www.arkansasobesity.org/ghc/history/)