By Cassidy Steines-
A pep rally was held at the high school gym this morning with an address by Mayor Scott Peterson to proclaim Jan. 27, “Mount Vernon Blue Zones Day.” The project needs student support to move from having 14.5 percent to over 25 percent of the community pledging support by the end of Friday to meet their objective, Blue Zones Project Manager Mollie Marti said.

As part of the assembly, Marti had students pull out their cell phones to text BZP to the number 772937 to pledge their support to the process. Superintendent Pamela Ewell and principal Steve Brand also spoke to students.

An afternoon assembly was also held at the middle school gym from 2:15 to 2:45. Students showed their spirit by wearing blue.

Members of the community are striving to make Mount Vernon one of 10 cities in Iowa designated as a Blue Zone community. According to www.bluezonesproject.com, Blue Zones are “places in the world where people live healthy, happy lives well into their nineties or even 100s.” These places were dubbed “Blue Zones” by National Geographic researcher Dan Buettner.

The Blue Zones project is part of Iowa’s initiative to become the healthiest state in the nation. Certain chosen communities will get a share of $25 million to create opportunities for lasting changes.

The Blue Zone project’s focus is also set on students. “One aim of our community resiliency work is to better engage students in our community,” said Marti. “We are increasing both our offerings and our adult mentors so that each student can find support to develop their interests, passions, and skills. The process of putting together our Blue Zones application has already strengthened these efforts. With or without Blue Zones funding, we are actively moving forward in partnership with the school to support happier, healthier students and teachers.”

Marti said that Mount Vernon has a strong foundation to become a Blue Zone community. “Stakeholders in our city government, school board and administration, businesses, and community are coming together to create a shared vision of what is possible,” said Marti. “Student input is an essential and welcomed part of this conversation and we have had interested teens provide feedback. We invite all students who would like to get involved at this planning stage to reach out to our Community Engagement Director Jennifer Rothmeyer at [email protected].”

During the application process, the community named an Advisory Board that brings experience in city government, commerce, business, education, and community and 14 Initiatives which are Physical Health/Fit Families, Physical Health/Gardening & Eating Locally, Physical Health/Healthy Eating, Well Being /Developmental Assets, Well Being/Drug Free Community, Mental Health/Peer Mentoring, Social Connections/Community Wellness Center, Community Education/Lifetime Enrichment, Community /Traditions & Celebrations, Nature/Trails & Parks, Nature/Get Moving Clubs, Culture/Art in Action, Purposeful Living/ Service Learning, and Purposeful Living/Inter-generational Learning.

The factors that determine whether Mount Vernon is chosen to be a Blue Zone are streamline municipal structure (one mayor, one city council, one public school system); residency (a majority of people living and working in the community); stakeholder commitment (support from mayor, city council, business leaders, school superintendent, other key civic leaders); local communications support (newspaper, TV, radio, church bulletins and other key groups helping drive participation); volunteer network (strong network with a proven track record); resource commitment (providing administrative assistant, office space, and other essentials); and citizen support, which is where the students come in.
In order to become a Blue Zone community, there is a needed 25% minimum of residents pledging to partake in the Blue Zone Project. “Youth involvement is essential. The most important task right now is to educate and mobilize at least 25% of our community to pledge support,” said Marti. Anyone 13 years old and older can pledge support at www.bluezonesproject.com or by texting BZP to the number 772937.