The Vitality Project came to its official end on Tuesday evening with a public celebration of its successes. Here are a some of them: 2,300 people officially participated; a walking/biking trail was completed around Fountain Lake; thousands of feet of sidewalk were added; hundreds of kids walked to school in walking school buses and more than 600 citizens joined the walking groups, called moais; nearly a thousand Albert Leans took part in purpose workshops; and two-thirds of locally owned restaurants added longevity-promoting foods to their menus.
But perhaps the biggest overall achievement of the Vitality Project, according to city manager Victoria Simonsen, has been "a new sense of connection in our town, a mutual support system that we didn't have before."
A New Center
At the celebration, Albert Lea officially pledged to keep the experiment going by continuing the Vitality Project initiatives and establishing a Vitality Center in the heart of downtown. Victoria announced the new measures and accepted two $10,000 grants in support of them, from AARP and United Health Foundation.
"There were 15 different initiatives in the Vitality Project," she says, "from the walking school buses to the restaurant project to the cooking classes. Every single one has expressed a desire to continue." A Vitality Team made up of representatives of community stakeholders—the school system, chamber of commerce, city government, and other groups—will oversee the continuing initiatives, and the Vitality Center will be the place to go to sign up for classes and other activities and to take the Vitality Compass.
"We're going to be calling on volunteers to fix up the building and to help us with all phases of the center," says Victoria. "We have a little spot in the lower level of city hall where our library foundation runs a used book store. They have two volunteers there—every day of the week, nine to three—and it's been very successful. We thought, 'If we can do that for used books, think what we can do for a project like this, with all the people who've been involved already.' "
A Proud Town
The eventual goal is for Albert Lea to become a place where other communities can learn how to make the same kind of commitment to health, longevity, and human connection that Albert Lea has made.
"This town is proud of what it's been able to achieve," says Victoria, "but it still comes down to individual lives. At the kickoff of the Project, some people were questioning our goal of adding two years of longevity to our lives. Two years doesn't sound like much, they said. Well, I was at the podium with my two daughters, and I said that two more years with these girls was well worth making a few changes in my life. I took the Vitality Compass for the second time the other day, and I found that I had added 13 years. That means I might get to see a grandbaby grow up. That's the essence of what this experience means to me."
– By Dan Buettner and Jeannine Ouellette
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Albert Lea is very proud of what it's achieved, says town manager Victoria Simonsen. – Photo by Allen Brisson-Smith
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