Grantees

City of Asheboro
City of Asheboro seeks to engage area senior citizens and members of four downtown Asheboro churches in the "Zoo City Fitness, Fun & Fellowship" project. By marking and promoting eight safe walking routes and completing the routes with newly constructed and refurbished sidewalks, the partnership aims to increase physical activity, improve quality of life and make walking for wellness a lifestyle habit for the senior citizens and eventually all of Asheboro’s residents.

City of Belmont
City of Belmont seeks to implement the "Walking to School in Belmont" project, in which a park-and-walk pedestrian connection (.2 mile trail) between Belmont’s elementary and middle schools will be constructed. The aim is to promote physical activity among children and parents, provide a safe transportation route to afterschool activities, and reduce traffic congestion and emissions. The project also aims to spur lasting cultural changes in the city, helping reverse the social stigma Belmont parents have about kids walking to school, and engraining within kids the idea that walking can be an enjoyable part of their everyday experience.

Buncombe County
Buncombe County Parks, Greenways and Recreation Services seeks funding to implement the project, "Creating a Healthy Environment for Woodfin Elementary School Students." Nearly one mile of sidewalk will be constructed to connect the school to neighborhoods and community facilities, providing students an improved environment to encourage and sustain a healthy lifestyle.

Chatham County
Chatham County Public Health Department seeks funding for "Walk Pittsboro," a project that aims to enable residents of Pittsboro the opportunity to routinely walk or bike to destinations using the Robeson Creek Greenway and other "Walk Pittsboro" designated walking routes.

Jackson County
Jackson County Parks and Recreation CATALYST (Creating Access to Active Living – On Your Side of Town) will undertake creation of a publicly accessible trail and recreational facility at Smokey Mountain Elementary School as a catalyst to a countywide initiative to encourage active living, walking and cycling, and access to local recreation opportunities. The partnership will work to expanded recreational access policies in order to address a significant need for additional physical activity opportunities and enhanced health and wellness for residents.

City of Lenoir
City of Lenoir seeks funding for Unity Park Community Gardens, a pedestrian accessible community park with raised garden beds, fruit trees and berry bushes. Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding Unity Park and students from Davenport A+ and West Lenoir Elementary schools will enjoy the walking path and the active play area of the park on a regular basis, will participate in growing vegetables and herbs in the garden beds and in harvesting fruits and berries in the park. They also will learn healthy ways of preparing fresh produce. The partnership envisions that greater numbers of children and adults in the target neighborhoods will be eating a minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

City of Asheville Parks Recreation and Cultural Arts Department
$60,000 for the "Aston Park Fit Community Collaborative," to bring new playground equipment and community-based programming to the park and increase opportunities for routine physical activity among families in the surrounding ethnically and socio-economically diverse neighborhoods. An emerging partnership between grassroots and city leaders will also address the park’s history and current perceptions of inequality.

Currituck County Parks and Recreation Department
$60,000 for the "Currituck Gets Fit" project to increase healthy behavior among County Employees by developing safe walking trail links and introducing a mobile farmers’ market at the Governmental Center. This project offers an opportunity to integrate both physical activity and healthy eating goals within the same initiative.

City of Goldsboro Parks and Recreation Department
$60,000 to develop an initiative aimed at increasing healthy eating and physical activity among young children enrolled in child care facilities by improving select facilities’ policies, practices, and environmental supports for healthy behaviors, and encouraging all facilities to regularly use Stoney Creek Park as a resource for active play. This is the first Fit Community project that targets preschool-aged children.

Graham County Department of Public Health
$60,000 for the "Robbinsville Physical Activity and Creative Play Environments (PACE)" project, to provide outdoor playground equipment at the town’s new recreational complex, enhance physical connections and joint-use agreements with schools, and undertake a countywide comprehensive recreation plan. Through technical assistance, this project offers the opportunity to integrate health goals into the recreation master planning process.

Millbridge Elementary School
$60,000 to implement the "Millbridge Discovery Garden," an outdoor classroom where children will learn how to grow fruits and vegetables and benefit from the opportunity to taste healthy foods. The school will also continue to develop its healthy eating policies to improve students’ daily healthy eating behaviors.

Tyrell County Community Development Corporation
$60,000 for the "Eat Right, Step Right" initiative that is working with three African American churches in the town of Columbia to implement a community garden and develop healthy eating policies and programs in the faith community. This is the first faith-based Fit Community project.

City of Wilmington
$60,000 for the "Ann Street Bike Boulevard" initiative, which will complete pedestrian and bicycle intersection improvements that, along with incentive programs, will immediately improve access (provide “active transportation” options) for residents of two diverse neighborhoods near the downtown area and farmers’ market. These efforts are part of a citywide bike boulevard plan that gives priority to bicycles on an existing roadway. When completed, it will be the first of its kind in North Carolina.

Yancey County Schools
$60,000 to fund "Getting on the Right Track," a project to renovate the athletic track at Mountain Heritage High School. When completed, the track and associated programs will provide opportunities for vigorous and moderate physical activity for students as well as the entire community, thanks to the school's existing joint-use policy. In addition greenway planning to connect the school to downtown Burnsville will take place. This is the first Fit Community project to focus on a high school setting.

City of Burlington Recreation and Parks
$54,000 for the “Bringing Active Leisure Living Into a Neighborhood” (B.A.L.L.I.N) initiative, which aims to increase physical fitness among 115 families living at East Brooke Apartments, starting with a new walking track.

Caswell County Parks and Recreation Department
$60,000 for the “Caswell Seniors Moving More” (CSMM) project aimed at making it easy for seniors to be more physically active on a daily basis with a new trail being the centerpiece.

Town of Edenton
$60,000 to develop “Project TRACK” (Teaching, Reaching, And Collaborating for Knowledge), which will increase routine physical activity primarily via two interlocking paved tracks adjacent to two schools, White Oak Elementary School and DF Walker Elementary School.

Town of Faison
$60,000 for the “Faison Fosters Fitness” project to equip a newly renovated historic gym with physical fitness equipment, provide a walking trail, resurface two tennis courts, providing easy access to quality health and fitness opportunities in the town.

FirstHealth of the Carolinas (Town of Pinehurst)
$57,000 to implement “Pinehurst Walks!”  designed to facilitate community walkability in the Village of Pinehurst through greenway enhancements to encourage walking to and from an elementary school.

Pitt County Government
$54,000 for the “Making Pitt Fit” project which aims to increase routine physical activity by extending the distance of a walking trail at the County's first district park; constructing an interpretive center (kiosk); a community-wide walking program; and connecting adjacent neighborhoods.

Salisbury Land Management and Development (Town of Salisbury)
$60,000 for the "North Main Street Neighborhood… Enjoying the Journey" initiative, which will increase routine physical activity among the neighborhood's residents by providing a safe 1.5-mile extension of the Salisbury Greenway linking them to nearby parks and healthcare facilities.

Yadkin-Pee Dee Lakes Project dba Central Park NC (Town of Star, Montgomery County)
$54,000 to fund construction of a half-mile “Star Walking Trail” at the STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise as well as programs that will help develop healthy lifestyle options for the residents in the Town of Star.

Town of Black Mountain
$58,592 awarded to fund “Eat Smart Black Mountain,” a community garden initiative that will coordinate efforts among the existing Community Garden, a new School Satellite Garden, and a new school nutrition program that will foster healthy eating habits for at-risk school families.

Graham Children’s Health Services of Toe River
$60,000 awarded to fund “Project Live Active in Yancey (PLAY)” which focuses on enhancements such as a sidewalk extension, new gym floor, and equipment for Ray-Cort Park, allowing better connectivity within the downtown and more opportunities for children and adults to play.

City of Greensboro
$60,000 awarded to help fund “Downtown Greenway,” which will enable the construction of an approximately 0.35 mile, multiple-use, paved trail that would serve and be celebrated as the first segment in a 4.2-mile greenway trail designed to eventually surround Greensboro's downtown central business district. This project will target residents of Warnersville, a neighborhood with a lower socioeconomic status population.

Orange County Partnership for Young Children
$51,300 awarded to fund “Carrboro Growing Healthy Kids,” which aims to address the issue of child obesity by encouraging children and their families to eat smart and move more, primarily via the development of community gardens in Carrboro.

Stokes Reynolds Memorial Hospital
$60,000 awarded for “Successful Results Means Healthier Individuals,” which focuses on an Employee Wellness Program at the hospital that aims to increase physical activity and improve eating habits for its 282 employees. They will be offered opportunities to increase their physical activity, improve their eating habits, and access health screenings and health education.

Northampton County Health Department
$58,480 awarded to focus on a workplace wellness program targeting all 260 County government employees, which will include educational sessions, policy support, exercise equipment, and improvements to a nature trail and a sidewalk.

City of Shelby
$56,000 awarded to fund “Fit Shelby,” a project designed to address the community’s needs for healthy eating and physical activity especially in two targeted schools. Policies and physical project strategies will be used to impact connectivity, traffic calming and other measures to improve walkability.

Town of Spring Lake
$60,000 awarded to fund “Path to Fitness,” which focuses on the provision of a safe, designated place and ongoing programmatic support that will inspire exercise to become a way of life for senior citizens.

Ashe County Health Council
$56,012 to enhance and expand the work of the Nutrition, Physical Activity and Tobacco Committee of the Ashe Healthy Carolinians Task Force by: 1) building a climbing wall for youth; 2) implementing classroom-based physical activities; 3) developing a community walking trail; and 4) building a fitness facility—all primarily targeted to school children.

City of Graham, Recreation and Parks Department
$59,900 to increase physical activity levels by 25% and increase healthy eating options for residents by: 1) establishing a downtown walking route and promoting it through a program called Graham Walks; 2) installing drainage pipes and signage to encourage the use of an existing walking trail at a local park; and 3) recruiting Winner's Circle restaurants in the City of Graham.

City of Lumberton Recreation Department
$60,000 to increase physical activity for school children, citizens of low socioeconomic status, and minorities including members of the Lumbee tribe via: 1) new fitness stations along the Lumber River Walking Trail; 2) education of high risk citizens about healthy lifestyles and the resources available to them; 3) drafting policies to complement and institutionalize these efforts; and 4) the creation of a coalition of local agencies with similar missions.

Duplin Partners for Health
$60,000 to assist in promoting physical activity among county employees via: 1) enhancement of the Duplin Commons walking track by adding benches, water fountains, shade trees, waste containers and a Par Fitness Course; and 2) an annual Family Walk/Run Day and other physical activity programs to promote the improved track while increasing awareness for the benefits of physical activity.

Haywood County Health Department
$60,000 to increase physical activity levels for school children and community residents via: 1) a Walk and Roll program; 2) Take 10! Curriculum promotion in classrooms; 3) use of ‘Gamebikes’ in PE curriculum and as a classroom incentive; 4) creation and promotion of a paved quarter mile track and a community biking/walking trail; 5) formation of a community 4H biking club for children, and more.

Heartworks Children's Medical Home Mission (Pamlico Co.)
$59,975 to promote community awareness and education, while increasing motivation, social support and community involvement in the fight against youth obesity by: 1) identifying specific needs and barriers to increasing physical activity in Pamlico county; 2) drafting local policies to improve child health; and 3) expanding the Take10! program and creating new initiatives for students and parents such as a monthly, county-wide FitTrek competition and Support & Education Group sessions.

Mecklenburg County Health Department
$60,000 to improve local employee health by: 1) increasing employee access to healthy Winner’s Circle foods; 2) encouraging employees to participate in physical activity; and 3) bettering nutrition and physical activity policies and physical projects through a pilot worksite wellness program entitled Work to Wellness, which will assist local employers with creating an environment conducive to healthy eating and physical activity.

Sampson County Parks and Recreation Department
$60,000 to increase physical activity through the Walking Today for a Healthy Tomorrow campaign, which will establish walking clubs in various communities targeted specifically to elderly residents throughout the County. The program will: include a free medical and fitness screening, help to establish walking routes that combine physical activity with local history and culture, and designate community “Champions,” who will help direct the walking clubs in their communities. Goals for those seniors who participate include 1) decreasing mean arterial pressure by 10%; and 2) decreasing resting heart rate by 10%.