Nearly one year later, the work of various organizations in Elizabethton and Carter County were recognized at the state level.

Governor Bill Haslam officially designated an additional 14 communities as “Healthier Tennessee Communities” with Carter County being named as one of the designees. Grow Carter County was the grassroots efforts formed by various community groups to achieve appointment.

“This is the result of different organizations coming together to work toward our community becoming a healthy place to live for the future,” Josh McKinney, chairman of Grow Carter County, said about the recent announcement.

The initiative was created by the Governor’s Foundation for Health and Wellness — a nonprofit corporation based out of Nashville with the mission to promote healthier lifestyles for communities across the state. Healthier Tennessee Communities allows different organizations, schools and businesses to join together and offer different programs to encourage residents to move more, eat healthier and steer clear from tobacco products.

“It’s a program that lets communities shake away unhealthy habits,” McKinney said. “This is a program that is aimed to help increase the state’s ranking in health compared to other states.”

With the designation, McKinney added the goal now is to focus on the local initiatives to help carry over the county’s momentum to promote healthier projects.

“We want to make our initiatives things that we will have good opportunities to influence in some significant way,” he said. “We want to be doing things that are making new impacts in our community to effect significant change for the lives of our people.”

Creating projects that work hand-in-hand with one another and are aligned with the Governor’s Foundation is key, he added. Working alongside the foundation’s Northeast Tennessee Regional Director Kayla Smith, McKinney said the initiatives for this year include the following:

• Promote, develop and advocate for more seniors and adults physical activity opportunities.

• Create new opportunities for children and families to get outside and get active through the development of a downtown “story trail” and promotion of parks and recreational activities.

• Promote and support after- and during-school activities and nutritional practices with a special focus on the Little Milligan community through the installation of a water bottle refilling station.

• Promote and support home gardening practices and community access to fruits and vegetables.

• Promote, advocate and support local restaurants in helping the community make smarter nutritional choices through the Eat Nutrition Program and Awareness Movement.

• Promote, advocate for and support tobacco cessation efforts in the community and prioritizing efforts of the Carter County Health Department and Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition.

With the designation, Carter County is now eligible to receive grant funding for different projects to assist with its various projects.

Another key element being addressed for 2018 is to make the movement more “deeper in its focus” McKinney said, and incorporating volunteers looking to make an impact.

“We’re always looking for individuals, businesses and organizations that want to help make the community a healthier place to live,” he said.

Individuals looking to get involved can either email growcartercounty@gmail.com or visit the Grow Carter County Facebook page for more information. The next Grow Carter County meeting, which is open for any individuals looking to help the movement, is Wednesday, April 18, at the City of Elizabethton Recreation Center.