Scranton was chosen in 2020 as one of the five communities who would receive funds through the 5-2-1-0 Healthy Choices Count program. A steering committee was formed with members from the parks and rec committee, community center, city hall, library, and other community volunteers to form an action plan of projects we would like to see for our community.
The first order of business was to learn about the 5-2-1-0 message from the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Healthiest State Initiative. This program encourages children and families to try to eat FIVE or more fruits and veggies, have TWO hours or less of recreational screen time, get ONE hour or more of physical activity, and drink ZERO sugary drinks daily – drink more water instead.
Next, we needed to come up with some projects that would encourage those goals. We came up with a lot of fun ideas to try to encourage families to utilize some great resources that we already had in Scranton – our community center, library, and parks.
The 5-2-1-0 grant is a tiered grant that is awarded over three years. Our first year of the grant, 2020, just happened to be during a global pandemic. This made the 5-2-1-0 message even more relevant to people around the world and also in our small community. Unfortunately, the pandemic also made some projects difficult to accomplish the first year because of shipping delays, production delays, and increased costs.
The first year of our grant Scranton paid for a disc golf course, outdoor fitness equipment, games and basketballs for the community center, water bottle filling stations for the community center, fitness DVDS at the library, and materials to make a Story Walk. Our disc golf course and outdoor fitness equipment weren’t able to be installed in 2020. The community center was able to get in the new games, basketballs, and the water bottle filling station for the kids to use before school at the bus stop. The library was able to get in the fitness DVDs and several stories were able to be displayed through the Story Walks.
In our second year of the grant, 2021, we were able to fund the concrete and installation of the disc golf course behind the School Park and the outdoor fitness equipment at the School Park. Many families have talked about how much they enjoy the disc golf course and several people have been checking out the newly installed fitness equipment as well.
We were also able to get new flexible seating at the library, bike racks, and stencils to create an outdoor sensory walk. The flexible seating came in at the library in the last couple weeks, and it is great for kids who like to fidget or for anyone who wants to try to sneak in some exercise.
We are still determining which stencil set we want to use at different locations around town, so be on the look-out for those soon!
If you have been enjoying the equipment funded by the 5-2-1-0 Healthy Choices Count! grant, please stop in at City Hall or at the library and let us know. We would love to hear some feedback on the projects we have been able to do so far and any ideas you might have for what we can accomplish in the third year of funding! ~ Wendy Johnson, Scranton public library director, courtesy of The Scranton Journal
