Did you know that community pride is growing in The Dalles?
That’s true, according to a recent Gallup Well Being Index survey conducted by the Blue Zones Project The Dalles in 2019.
And that might just help; us all live longer, healthier, happier lives.
“In the last two years, there has been a seven percent increase in residents feeling ‘proud of their community,’” said Brett Ratchford, organization lead with Blue Zones in The Dalles, which began in the city more than two years ago.
Similar successes are also occurring around the state in Klamath Falls, Roseburg and Grants Pass.
Projects in Oregon focus on communities that show lower than average survey scores, where community members report on their own social, community and physical well being in a Gallup survey.
For example, 71.6 percent of those surveyed in The Dalles self-reported being obese in 2017. However, that number tumbled 12 points in the latest survey taken in 2019, Ratchford said.
Blue Zones, created by Dan Buettner, is a program that works to spur health, happiness and longevity but not through trends or the latest fad.
Buettner, a National Geographic fellow and longevity coach, spent years studying pockets of people who were living longer, healthier happier lives. He found that they were not people intentionally seeking goals of weight loss or happiness through diet, exercise, or attainment of monetary wealth. Rather, longevity and happiness grew from the right environment. Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California were the five original areas of study where people were living to or past 100 and reported higher levels of happiness.
In these communities’ people walked more—moving naturally, had strong social ties, ate a diet that was about 20 percent meat based or less and people had a strong sense of purpose—they enjoyed their work, according to his study.
“Shape people’s environment so they are set up for success, and they are nudged into slightly healthier behaviors,”Buettner said during an online-interview with actor Matthew McConaughey. “Make it easier to garden and eat fresh vegetables or make it easier to enjoy a hobby or discover your purpose” and health improves, he explained.
In part, Blue Zones Projects in Oregon help augment community groups, who then find ways to address issues that increase wellness and happiness. An example of that in The Dalles is the installation of concrete bump-outs, signals and a crosswalk at Dry Hollow Elementary. That project was a result of local citizens needing to create a safe route to school, and accessing funding to make environmental changes.
“Walk to School Wednesdays” has dozens of students walking to Colonel Wright and Chenowith Elementary schools as well.
Walking or moving naturally is one of the nine “power principles” that Buettner discovered in his travels.
In Grants Pass, the community was able to parlay their success in getting students to walk to school into an Oregon Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant for $100,444. It will pay for scooters, bicycles, helmets and a bus to transport them. They will be shared amongst the elementary schools, Coral Simpson with Grants Pass Blue Zones said.
Roseburg is also working toward a healthy identity. The community faced major economic challenges with the downturn in the logging industry. It also went through a school shooting at Umpqua Community College on Oct. 1, 2015, when a 26-year-old killed nine others before killing himself. The young man left a letter stating, “no job, no life, no success.”
That was a tipping point, said Juliete Palenshus with Blue Zones Project Roseburg. “The community felt ready to move after that,” she said. “Not just because of the shooting. But the shooting was a symptom of the underlying issues.”
Roseburg kicked off their Blue Zones Project with 800 people at the community college and soon had a coalition of community leaders from churches, city hall, businesses and nonprofits to set goals and guide a lasting policy that would outlive committees.
While Blue Zones Project Roseburg has reached some 6,300 people through healthy eating demonstrations, walking groups, other impacts can be seen within the community, Palenshus said.
For example, the area has been under-served in health care for years.
Aviva Health is now working toward a family medicine residency program where future doctors will complete their residency in Roseburg, offering health services to the community. In addition, the hope is to attract a strong group of health workers who would eventually choose to stay.
She also pointed out that George Fox University is exploring the possibility of building a mental health college in Roseburg.
“The need for healthcare education in Southern Oregon is great, as the region faces “growing allied and mental health workforce shortages that pose serious healthcare access issues,” according to Kelly Morgan, CEO of Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg.
In Klamath Falls, Blue Zones Projects Kendra Santiago said they were not engaging as many men as women.
So they put together a program for men to run or walk 60 miles during the month in concert with “Movember” and “No-Shave November.” The month has been designated for focusing on men’s health, especially suicide and cancer prevention.
Santiago said they also realized they needed to create a little more competition. So, they engaged the Air National Guard, police department, the Oregon Department of Forestry and fire departments and in a fitness challenge. Each group challenged the others to pass their fitness tests. Police were hiking through the woods with 45-pound packs. And foresters were doing sit-ups and pushups and a 1.5 mile run at Kingsley Air Field Air National Guard Base, to name a few of their activities.
“We felt more competition was needed to get men involved and it showcased what they do daily to be fit for work,” Santiago said.
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