(SIOUX CITY, IA) - Your health could get a boost thanks to a big announcement for Sioux City. It got the news Wednesday that it's now a Blue Zone community.
Blue Zones is an initiative by WellMark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation. The designation will help provide money for new and better programs to improve the health of kids and adults in Sioux City.
Sioux City fell short last year after applying the first time, but now the city will have an office for the Blue Zones team to work on making Sioux City the healthiest it can be.
"Everybody benefits from this whether you live in Sioux City, play in Sioux City. It is a Sioux City deal, but again our neighbors across the river are also going to benefit as well as well as those out east and north and south," said Derek Carmona, Environmental Services Analyst.
"We need to begin the process of trying to identify volunteers and using those volunteers in roles that they find some meaning from and that they're useful to this community. I would hope part of this is that we get really active in that volunteerism, again," said Mayor Bob Scott.
Muscatine, Cedar Rapids, Marion, Iowa City and Oskaloosa are the other five of the six communities named a Blue Zone. First-round winners — Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Mason City — were named in May.
"A lot of it is about getting information out there about ways that we can change the community, policy changes that we can make and just getting people aware of those is our first big hurdle," said Carmona.
Over the next six or seven months, the city will put together a Blue Zones blueprint.
"The city may play an active part in trails and those sort of things, but I would hope the committee doesn't lose sight of the total focus of what it takes to be a healthy city," said Mayor Scott.
WellMark Blue Cross and Blue Shield will pay for the project including four paid positions that will help coordinate the program, experts that will visit Sioux City, and for a website that provides resources for businesses, schools, restaurants and grocery stores in Sioux City and across Siouxland.
"I think that there are so many resources that are happening and currently available within the Siouxland area, Siouxland community that it's not so much making up new ideas as opposed to bringing those resources to light and allowing people to see what is available," said Angela Ericson, who applied for the four Blue Zones positions.
Sioux City is still accepting applications for those four positions and it's in need of volunteers. The city expects it'll take about two and half years to get the Blue Zones project up and running.
