Pensacola, Fla. –The City of Pensacola’s Parks and Recreation Department is partnering with 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go Northwest Florida!, the West Florida Public Library, and the Florida Department of Health in Escambia County (FDOH-Escambia) to celebrate the grand opening of Pensacola’s first story walk book, located in Bryan Park in Pensacola. At this event, FDOH-Escambia’s Director, Dr. John Lanza, will present Mayor Ashton Hayward with the Florida Department of Health’s Healthy Weight Community Champion recognition.

                                    Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. CT

                                    Bryan Park, 1200 Langley Avenue, Pensacola

Media and members of the public are invited to attend. Mayor Hayward will lead a ribbon cutting for the story walk and accept the Florida Department of Health’s 2016 Healthy Weight Community Champion recognition. Pensacola native and professional basketball player, Mr. Reggie Evans, will perform the inaugural reading of the story walk book.

In selecting Healthy Weight Community Champions, the State Surgeon General’s office evaluates policies adopted by local governments that have been shown to increase physical activity and improve nutrition. These “best practice” policies are reflected in the Healthy Weight Community Champion submission criteria. By implementing best practices within their jurisdictions, local governments can create environments where the healthy choice is the easy choice.

“We are excited to present this honor to Pensacola for the second year in a row,” says FDOH-Escambia’s Director, John J. Lanza, MD, PhD, MPH, FAAP. “The City’s many park facilities are one of the key assets that helped Pensacola to gain the attention of the Surgeon General’s office during the Healthy Weight Community Champion evaluation process. Enhancements, such as this story walk, increase opportunities for physical activity, which is the State Surgeon General’s first strategy to address healthy weight in Florida.”

Play Pensacola’s Director, Brian Cooper agrees: “We’re happy to have the opportunity to collaborate with so many partners to establish this story walk. The concept presents an innovative opportunity to instill in our children a love for reading and learning, as well as for physical activity and being outdoors.”

The Bryan Park story walk features the book “Juggling Through the Jungle” by area author Joe Salter. In Salter’s work, a young boy learns eight life coping skills as he spends a day making new friends and finding his way through an unfamiliar place. The story walk provides users with the opportunity to read while being physically active, as they walk from page to page of the book. Panels below the book page suggest to the reader to perform an activity that relates to the part of the story they are reading.

5-2-1-0 Let’s Go Northwest Florida! is the local extension of Florida’s Healthiest Weight initiative which was first implemented by the Florida Department of Health in 2013. The initiative works closely with partners to leverage existing resources to maximize reach and impact. These partners include the business community, hospitals, non-governmental organizations, non-profit agencies, other federal, state, or local government agencies, and volunteer coalitions. The overall goal is to bend the weight curve by 5% by 2017.

5-2-1-0 Let’s Go Northwest Florida! was adopted from 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go! in Maine. The program encourages families and individuals to adopt four daily habits that have been shown to impact an individual’s weight: Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, limit screen time to 2 hours or less, get at least 1 hour of physical activity every day, and consume 0 sugary drinks.