Help Make The Dalles a Blue Zone!
Donation protected
The community of The Dalles has an incredible opportunity to become the next Blue Zones Demonstration Community in Oregon.
Blue Zones is a comprehensive health and well-being campaign that focuses on improving all aspects of a community, including schools, worksites, restaurants, grocery stores, churches, and individuals. The mission of Blue Zones is to help people live longer, better lives.
Blue Zones originated when Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow, went around the world to search for the places where people live the longest, healthiest lives. He found five communities where people lived, on average, 10 years longer than in other places.
Buettner went on to study what traits allowed for these communities to have such amazing longevity and happiness and discovered what he calls the Power 9. These principles don't just focus on physical health (like diet and exercise) but include social, spiritual, and financial health as well as a sense of purpose and a strong connection to one's community. The Blue Zones Project now works with communities across the United States to reverse engineer them to have more of the Power 9 Principles that Buettner found to be so important in the original Blue Zones communities.
A team of local community members and organizations has been working for nearly a year to bring the Blue Zones Project to The Dalles and we are in the final moments of this project. After submitting our application in August 2016 and being selected as a finalist for a site visit in October 2016, Blue Zones Project Oregon notified us that they were highly impressed with our community and our readiness for taking on a project like this to continue to improve the health and well-being of The Dalles.
The final step in our Blue Zones application and the launch of our community as a demonstration location is to raise local funds to support the project. When Blue Zones comes into a community they hire 4 local staff people that get to wake up every day and think about how to make The Dalles a healthier happier community. Our contribution pays for those workers to do just that.
Our portion of the contribution for the year one of the three year project is $200,000. Those funds are more than matched by the Cambia Health Foundation which contributes $633,000 in year one to our community to make the Blue Zones project happen. Thanks to the incredible generosity of Mid-Columbia Medical Center which contributed $100,000 of that amount, as well as Columbia Gorge Community College ($12,000 in office space), Oregon State University-Wasco County Extension ($10,000), Providence Hospital ($10,000), and the Columbia Gorge Health Council ($10,000) we are even closer to reaching our goal. We would like to help close the gap in our fundraising with contributions from our incredible community members. We have until January 31st to raise the money for year one. Contributions to this site that come in after that date will be applied to the needed community contribution for year two. We've heard from many folks that said they would love to contribute personally so that's why we set up this option--to make sure that if you feel passionate about bringing Blue Zones to The Dalles, you can be a part of the effort!
We know we are a great place to live, work, play, and learn. We want to make it even better. Help us make The Dalles the next Blue Zone and contribute today!
Thank you so much!
-The Dalles Blue Zones Application Team
Blue Zones is a comprehensive health and well-being campaign that focuses on improving all aspects of a community, including schools, worksites, restaurants, grocery stores, churches, and individuals. The mission of Blue Zones is to help people live longer, better lives.
Blue Zones originated when Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow, went around the world to search for the places where people live the longest, healthiest lives. He found five communities where people lived, on average, 10 years longer than in other places.
Buettner went on to study what traits allowed for these communities to have such amazing longevity and happiness and discovered what he calls the Power 9. These principles don't just focus on physical health (like diet and exercise) but include social, spiritual, and financial health as well as a sense of purpose and a strong connection to one's community. The Blue Zones Project now works with communities across the United States to reverse engineer them to have more of the Power 9 Principles that Buettner found to be so important in the original Blue Zones communities.A team of local community members and organizations has been working for nearly a year to bring the Blue Zones Project to The Dalles and we are in the final moments of this project. After submitting our application in August 2016 and being selected as a finalist for a site visit in October 2016, Blue Zones Project Oregon notified us that they were highly impressed with our community and our readiness for taking on a project like this to continue to improve the health and well-being of The Dalles.
The final step in our Blue Zones application and the launch of our community as a demonstration location is to raise local funds to support the project. When Blue Zones comes into a community they hire 4 local staff people that get to wake up every day and think about how to make The Dalles a healthier happier community. Our contribution pays for those workers to do just that.
Our portion of the contribution for the year one of the three year project is $200,000. Those funds are more than matched by the Cambia Health Foundation which contributes $633,000 in year one to our community to make the Blue Zones project happen. Thanks to the incredible generosity of Mid-Columbia Medical Center which contributed $100,000 of that amount, as well as Columbia Gorge Community College ($12,000 in office space), Oregon State University-Wasco County Extension ($10,000), Providence Hospital ($10,000), and the Columbia Gorge Health Council ($10,000) we are even closer to reaching our goal. We would like to help close the gap in our fundraising with contributions from our incredible community members. We have until January 31st to raise the money for year one. Contributions to this site that come in after that date will be applied to the needed community contribution for year two. We've heard from many folks that said they would love to contribute personally so that's why we set up this option--to make sure that if you feel passionate about bringing Blue Zones to The Dalles, you can be a part of the effort!
We know we are a great place to live, work, play, and learn. We want to make it even better. Help us make The Dalles the next Blue Zone and contribute today!
Thank you so much!
-The Dalles Blue Zones Application Team
Organizer and beneficiary
Lauren Kraemer
Organizer
The Dalles, OR
The Dalles Blue Zones Project
Beneficiary