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Community teams up to promote health, fitness
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
McKinney: unique by health.
It may not have as nice of ring as the city's slogan "unique by nature," but if community health and fitness initiatives continue, there could be a change in tone.
About a year after Mayor Brian Loughmiller declared May as "Get Fit Month," he recently announced the McKinney Health Challenge, a citywide partnership to promote wellness throughout the community.
The two-month, eight-event challenge began Friday with a McKinney Relay for Life event and ends June 30 at a Baylor Medical Center at McKinney grand-opening celebration. City staff, McKinney ISD, McKinney Main Street, Kiwanis Club of McKinney, the American Heart Association and Baylor Medical Center are teaming up to push McKinney toward the upper echelon of America's fittest cities.
And it's a whole-town sort of push. Seventy teams of 359 city employees and 104 residents have been tracking online their physical activity and weight loss for this year's Live Healthy Texas 100 Day Challenge, which ends Tuesday.
Loughmiller will announce the community winners Friday at Get Fit McKinney, a free fitness celebration at Ron Poe Stadium. Hosted by the city and McKinney ISD, the new event will feature bounce houses, rock-climbing walls and 33 different health and fitness vendors.
"It's a celebration of our year and our health initiatives," said Karin Klemm, McKinney ISD health and physical education coordinator. "We're trying to make people aware of what's there for them in health and fitness."
To make health a priority in and out of school, at every age, the school district this year partnered with the city to promote several 5K runs/walks and other fitness events, like last month's pickle-ball outing for senior citizens and elementary students.
That day, it was seniors setting a fitness example, but McKinney ISD students and staff have done so for nearly two years. McClure, Minshew and Walker Elementary schools are all up for the national Healthy Zone School award that Burks Elementary won last year, and find out May 27 if the award could soon be a McKinney tradition.
As for district food services, Minshew Elementary earned a gold designation in the HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC), a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiative to recognize schools' promotion of nutrition and physical activity. Thirteen other McKinney ISD elementary schools earned bronze, and the district's remaining six elementary campuses will know this fall whether they've earned HUSSC recognition.
"We're setting an example for a lot of other towns not just in the state, but in the whole nation," Klemm said. "A lot of people are looking at us, watching what we're doing."
Julie Blankenship, McKinney ISD director of health services, referenced the district's coordinated health and wellness plan as a reason for such a platform. Coordinated health depends on what its title proclaims: wellness through safety, community involvement, health and physical education, nutrition services, school health services, counseling and support, and health promotion for staff.
"We truly have a coordinated health system," Blankenship said. "We're trying to take what we've got and build awareness and involvement, so we're getting the message across to all areas."
As is Kiwanis Club of McKinney, a nonprofit organization that's providing incentive for students and their families to come to the Get Fit event, held the day before the club's annual Kids Triathlon (May 5) and Historic Kiwanis Triathlon (May 6).
The club, which reserved money from its triathlon account, will give $200 each to the athletic departments of the elementary school, middle school and high school that produce the biggest turnout at Get Fit McKinney.
"The point is to get people out for the health rally," said Dennis Williams, Kiwanis Club member. "We're all helping each other. That's our focus."
Local fitness options won't stop there, either. Bike the Bricks, a criterium bike race, will be held for the third straight year May 25 in downtown McKinney, and the 21st annual Collin Classic, another cycling event, will start and finish at McKinney North High School on June 9.
The American Heart Association will present the first Heart Chase in McKinney June 23, also downtown. Baylor Medical Center will wrap up the challenge June 30 with an open-house event at its new facility.
The Heart of McKinney 5K and Fun Run will start at 8:30 a.m. at the hospital and wind around adjacent neighborhoods. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the public will have access to health and wellness information, screenings, a farmers market, exercise demonstrations and tours of the facility, which officially opens July 6.
"We want to make sure we're good stewards of what we're here to do," said Jennifer Irwin, senior marketing consultant for the hospital. "We want people to think of us when they think of health and wellness."
Irwin, a member of Kiwanis Club, said several hospital staff members are involved with other events in the city challenge, another reason Baylor Medical Center joined the initiative.
Residents who participate in four of the challenge's eight events may enter in a drawing to win an iPad at the open house.
But the community seems to be aiming for a greater reward, one that could make it "unique" for another reason.
"The entire city is embracing the health challenge," Loughmiller said, "and taking great strides toward a fitter and ultimately healthier McKinney."
For more information about the McKinney Health Challenge, visit www.mckinneytexas.org/getfit.
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