27 Feb 2019 Move a Million Miles
If you live in Southwest Florida year-round, you know the absolute best time to get outside and be active is the beginning of the year. The skies are blue. The air is little lighter. The mosquitoes are slightly less active. The race calendars are full. It seems everyone is out walking, running or riding a bicycle.
Paradise in the winter is the perfect place and time to kick off a New Year’s Resolution and better habits. It’s also a great time to start a community initiative to inspire healthy lifestyle choices and increase physical activity community-wide.
The Million Mile Movement is an initiative of Healthy Lee designed to do just that by challenging the residents of Lee County to collectively move 1,000,000 miles by April 15, 2019.
The good news is, all moves count! You can walk to the bus stop or store, take a yoga class, or dance around the house with your kids or your grandkids for 30 minutes to get the benefit and help the community meet this shared goal.
At the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, we know it’s impossible for an individual or an organization to meet a big goal, like improving community health and wellness indicators, alone. Real change and moving the needle at the community or regional level requires collective effort.
We have witnessed what sharing a goal and working to reinforce each other’s work toward achieving a goal can do to create positive outcomes. It is something to behold. It’s the kind of energy we must harness to make our region a better place to live, work, learn, move and play for all. In fact, we partnered with the City of Fort Myers to create a container for collaboration called Collaboratory because collective thought and effort is the secret ingredient in the recipe for a more sustainable Southwest Florida.
If you are looking for a reason to get moving, or if you already move on a regular basis, go ahead and track those movements at http://healthylee.com/news-events/million-mile-movement/ and step up to this community challenge.
Physical activity and being outside are two great ways to lift your mood not to mention increase your physical well-being and health. It’s also an easy way to get involved in something that many others are doing in order to achieve a bigger goal, community health.
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you live, being physically active can be a game-changer in life. Meeting goals can be a huge motivator for change, too. Let’s start with our health and see what else what can change. Together we can do anything.
The Southwest Florida Community Foundation, founded in 1976, cultivates regional change for the common good through collective leadership, social innovation and philanthropy to address the evolving community needs in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. The Foundation partners with individuals, families and corporations who have created more than 400 philanthropic funds. Thanks to them, the Foundation invested $6.8 million in grants and programs to the community. With assets of more than $126 million, it has provided $78.2 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves since inception. The Foundation is the backbone organization for the regional FutureMakers Coalition and Lee County’s Sustainability Plan. The Southwest Florida Community Foundation’s regional headquarters are now located in the historic ACL Train Depot at Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers, with a satellite office located in LaBelle (Hendry County). For more information, call 239-274-5900 or visit www.floridacommunity.com.
