Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalists – Cedar Falls celebrates completion of the Blue Zones Project organization check list

Cedar Falls, Iowa –Sunday, March 17^th after the 9:30 service, CVUU will hold a Blue Zones Project celebration. 

The CVUU is the second organization in the Cedar Valley to complete the Blue Zones Project Organizational checklist and has about 50 members who completed the personal pledge to better their well-being!

"The Blue Zones Project was a natural for our congregation. Many of us are deliberately leading healthy lives, with environmentally friendly, buy-local diets, with walking and biking and other ways to be out in nature, and spiritual and meditative practices to help us bring more peace into the world. I'm proud of my congregation and its work to help make Cedar Valley an amazing place to live and thrive" said Rev. Eva Cameron, pastor of CVUU.

CVUU has demonstrated their commitment to better health in many ways through the years and is very excited about its most recent commitment of joining the Blue Zones Project.   Church member Sheri Huber-Otting went through training with BZP staff to educate other church members and help walk them through the personal pledge process.   “I believe in promoting good health to improve the quality of life and felt the BZP was a good fit for the CVUU congregation”, Sheri commented.  Some of the completed pledge items include creating moai groups to promote moving naturally, offering healthy meals and snacks, as well as hosting a weekly family night, and promoting volunteer opportunities throughout the Cedar Valley.

The Blue Zones Project Organizational Checklist is for faith-based organizations, civic organizations, clubs, or groups that would like to support Blue Zones Project. Organization participation is a vital part of reaching Blue Zones Certification in Cedar Falls. Organizations work through a checklist to make healthy choices easy choices and get 25% or more of their membership to take the personal pledge. If you would like to get your organization involved, contact Blue Zones Project 319-883-1578.

About CVUU--- Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalists have been a proudly progressive faith for 50 years, although we just changed our name! You may have heard of us as the Unitarian Universalist Society of Black Hawk County. Located just between Cedar Falls and Waterloo, on Cedar Heights Dr, we offer a great place to explore your own spiritual journey. With principles that affirm the worth and dignity of each human being, reason, social justice, and the interdependent web--we provide a warm environment to raise children who are spiritually grounded without dogmas that judge.  

The Blue Zones Project is based on Blue Zones® principles developed by Dan Buettner, National Geographic explorer and author of The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest. Blue Zones employs evidence-based ways to help people live longer, better lives by taking a systematic, environmental approach to well-being, which focuses on optimizing policy, social networks and the built environments where people spend their time. Brought to Iowa through an innovative sponsorship between Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Healthways, the initiative encourages all Iowa communities to change their built environments to make the healthy choice, the easy choice.