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Community Corner

Healthways | Blue Zones Vitality City Walking Moai Kick-Off Event, Grandview Elementary School

The beach cities will officially kick-off their first community-wide program, the Walking Moai. Moai, which means “meeting for a common purpose,” originated in Okinawa Japan as a way for villagers to support each other emotionally in times of need. Members of a Moai are connected to each other at the early age of five years old and meet regularly throughout the course of their entire lives. In the beach cities, the Healthways | Blue Zones Vitality City initiative will expand the traditional definition of a Moai to include walking, volunteering, or simply being active while making new friends. At the kick-off event, participants will be paired based on interests and placed groups that will walk together, spend active time together or volunteer together over the course of 10 weeks.

The Walking Moai is just one of the cornerstone programs that will help to transform the beach cities into a Vitality City. By taking this first step to participate, community members and city leaders are showing their commitment to supporting sustainable changes that will result in increased well-being and a quantifiably higher quality of life. If you’re interested, we’d love to have you come out to one of the kick-off events to speak with participants, volunteers, city officials and Vitality City representatives including Dan Buettner, Co-founder of the Healthways | Blue Zones Vitality City initiative.

To sign up or for more information, please visit www.vitalitycity.com.

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