Community Members Become Exercise Enthusiasts
Through a community-wide health campaign, Estes Park residents exercised their way to improved wellness, from walking to Pilates.
In 2003, when the Salud Family Health Clinic launched “Estes Park on the Move”—a community-wide health campaign through Colorado Healthy People 2010—Kay Rosenthal, RN, spearheaded myriad efforts to get residents in the area exercising regularly.
A long-time nursing administrator and educator, Rosenthal began to host a health program on Estes Park’s KEPL Radio, and to write on health topics for the Estes Park News and Estes Park Trail Gazette.
She talks about fitness, diet and various ways to get people in the community involved in public health projects, and she created special programs to broaden participation, like a dog-walking challenge with the town of Craig.
“We used pedometers a lot to count and track the number of steps of participants in the initiative,” said Rosenthal. She also started a website to post participants’ step counts, and to provide ongoing encouragement in a supportive, community-oriented format. After the conclusion of the initiative in 2005, she still gets letters and e-mails from people who feel their lives were permanently improved by the project.
“For me it was a wonderful motivational tool to keep active and moving,” wrote John Embish, 83. While he’d always been a walker and hiker, Estes Park on the Move gave him a sounding board as he remobilized after two knee surgeries. “When I was tempted to skip my workout, I thought about how it would affect my total steps for the week. And off I would go… and usually feel better for it, too.”
“I feel so good,” said Jeannie Logemann, 55. “I know that I can do a lot of physical activities now.” Formerly sedentary, Logemann went from taking walks to Pilates, yoga and weight lifting. Her dress size went from a “tight 10” to a 4-6.
And Susanne Bergeron, who is hearing impaired and uses a hearing dog to help her navigate through town, extols the joys of putting herself and her dog through their collective paces outdoors. “As long as they keep counting their steps, they can count on me for support,” said Rosenthal.
