North Adams is kicking off its first ever mayor’s fitness challenge.
Mayor Richard Alcombright is one of the more than 400 people signed up to take part in the 10-week health and wellness challenge.
“I was extremely active prior to becoming mayor,” Alcombright said. “On trails, on the road, basketball…the whole nine yards. That just really stopped and I’ve gained 50 pounds. It’s not fun. So this all of a sudden became very motivational for me.”
Amanda Chilson began brainstorming the idea more than a year and a half ago.
“They can accumulate points based on fruits, vegetables, every 8 oz. glass of water they drink and every 30 minutes of physical activity they do,” said Chilson.
Chilson is the Northern Berkshire Mass in Motion program coordinator for Adams, Clarksburg and North Adams. Working with the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition and area fitness and nutritional partners, participants will be able gain challenge points and more importantly knowledge about healthy living through community events ranging from line dancing to Zumba, according to Chilson.
“We don’t it to be just this 10-week challenge and then you’re done,” she said. “We really want to be implementing things that would be sustainable. So after these 10 weeks people have found that designated trail they love to walk or run on and people are really into now using the farmer’s market as place to buy their local fruits and vegetables. So really thinking about things that people can continue on after the fact.”
One of those community events will be the official opening of the city’s 5K walk/run loop May 9th. The Northern Berkshire YMCA is offering training sessions, nutrition seminars and a free one-week membership for those taking part in the challenge, according to CEO Justin Ihne.
“I believe there is a large group of people in the community that need to be in a group setting to be motivated,” Ihne said. “We see that at our Y with all of our group fitness classes. People like to have an instructor or somebody motivating them through the process.”
With the closure of North Adams Regional Hospital five weeks ago, Chilson says the wellness challenge has added significance.
“A lot of the things that people would have to go to the hospital or ER for are based around some preventable diseases like heart diseases and cardiovascular diseases,” Chilson said. “So the more that we can be doing and the more education we have around how to do that, I think the prevention piece can become really strong in this community. I’m hoping that begins to grow and learned throughout the challenge as well.”
The Mass in Motion program launched in 2008 after the state’s public health department found two out of three adults and one in four children in the commonwealth are obese or overweight. Since then, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has funded 33 programs across 52 communities covering more than a third of the commonwealth’s population through state funding and grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows 35 percent of children and 22 percent of adults in Berkshire County are obese.
The Be Well Berkshires program was created in 2009 and covers Pittsfield, Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox and Stockbridge. Springfield and Holyoke each have their own Mass in Motion initiative while Northampton and Amherst fall under the Healthy Hampshire County program.
More than 120 teams have signed up for the North Adams challenge. Awards will be announced July 11th.
