8 Countries - Public Service Announcement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, please contact
September 25, 2001 Health Education Center 374-2836, ext. 2131
"8 Countries"
Hancock County Coalition for Community Health (Healthy Hancock) is sponsoring an 8-week county-wide physical activity challenge called "8 Countries of Maine", which will begin on October 1, 2001. This event is a program designed to foster and promote physical activity in our communities; it encourages everyone, young and old, to take a "virtual journey" through 8 countries without leaving the State of Maine (China, Denmark, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Poland, and Sweden). The goal of the challenge is to increase awareness among Hancock County citizens that physical activity can be both healthy and enjoyable at the same time.
Here is how the program works:
 | Representatives from Healthy Hancock will visit local businesses, organizations and schools to explain the program. (The journey begins in Bar Harbor and totals 600 miles round trip. Each 30 minutes of physical activity—whether it be walking, tennis, weight training, skiing, raking leaves, fencing, etc.) equals 25 miles. Each person is asked to be active for 30 minutes at least 3 times per week during this 8-week program.) |
| Participants will be given a passport, which will be stamped as they reach each country or at the conclusion of their journey. |
| They will also be given fact sheets, including recipes, about each country. |
| Participants who complete the program are invited to walk together in the annual Christmas parade in Ellsworth on December 1 and attend a Gala celebration at the Downeast YMCA after the parade, at which time the grand prize drawings will be held. |
For more information or to receive an "8 Countries" registration package, contact any one of the members of Healthy Hancock listed below.
Blue Hill Memorial Hospital/Health Education Center (374-2836, Ext. 2131)
Bucksport Community Health Advisory Committee
Coastal Hancock Healthy Communities
Downeast Health Services, Inc. (667-5304)
Healthy Acadia (288-5082, Ext. 319)
Healthy Island Project (367-6332)
Healthy Peninsula Project (374-2836, Ext. 1010)
Maine Coast Memorial Hospital/Health-Link (667-2474)
MDI Community Health Plan (288-8616)
Mount Desert Island Hospital (288-5081)
Peninsula Area Team for Health (374-5187)
8 Countries was designed by Patti Leland-Hanson and Jenny Gott and is owned by the MDI Community Health Plan.
8 Countries is sponsored in part by a grant from the Maine Department of Human Services, Bureau of Health, entitled "Collaborative Community And School Health Promotion Programs for the Reduction of Tobacco Use and Tobacco-Related Disease (physical inactivity and poor nutrition) and the following business sponsors: Acadia Village Resorts, Cadillac Mountain Sports, Dead River Company, Ellsworth Holiday Inn, Emerson Oil, Lucerne Inn, Sears, Webber Energy.