Blooming Fest to help launch Healthy West Chicago

West Chicago and its community partners will launch the Healthy West Chicago initiative, which has been in development for more than a year, at Blooming Fest May 16.

Blooming Fest, the city's signature spring garden and craft event, takes place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day in downtown.

Launching Healthy West Chicago at the festival seemed like a natural fit to organizers, said Rosemary Mackey, West Chicago's marketing and communications coordinator.

"Between the connection of good health to gardening, and because of the level of exposure Healthy West Chicago will receive at an established event which draws a crowd in the thousands, pairing the two made perfect sense," Mackey said. "It even sparked this year's event theme, Blooming Fest - Growing a Healthy West Chicago."

Those attending should look for Healthy West Chicago signs and balloons to learn new ways to start making the healthy choice the easy choice in cooking healthy meals and increasing physical activity. Visitors also will learn about the soon-to-be released Healthy West Chicago Community Action Plan, and how residents can be a part of making West Chicago the healthiest community in the region.

The Community Action Plan was developed through input from a survey conducted last summer. While the survey showed West Chicago residents believe healthy eating and increased exercise are extremely important (93 percent), only 28 percent said West Chicago is a "healthy" or "very healthy" place to live.

Following the survey, 11 community forums were held for people who live or work in West Chicago. Forums included parents, faith-based communities, the West Chicago school districts, seniors, park district staff and more. All the ideas that were shared at the forums guided the development of the action plan, which was then presented to multiple technical experts who work to support healthy communities.

The experienced group of technical experts provided support and additional recommendations for the Healthy West Chicago Action Plan.

For more information about Blooming Fest, visit www.westchicago.org, or to follow the progress of Healthy West Chicago, visit its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/healthywestchicago.