It seems like everywhere you look in Albert Lea these days, groups of blue T-shirt-clad walkers are circling the lakes or gathering on corners.

No, Albert Lea has not been attacked by little blue aliens. These are your friends and neighbors known as the walking moai teams.

For 10 weeks, more than 70 teams of Albert Leans have gathered to walk together. They’ve counted their steps, tracked their volunteer hours and added up the time spent together.

Tonight, we will gather to celebrate the success of the walking moais and recognize the teams and individuals who walked the farthest and spent the most time together. More than 300 people participated — walking millions of steps.

Why It Worked

The walking moai concept was not just a new gimmicky way to get the residents of Albert Lea to exercise more. (Although exercise is a nice fringe benefit, we know that telling Americans to exercise more and eat less simply doesn’t work.)

Instead, we took a different approach. Our goal was to get people moving, but to do it in a way that promoted bonds in the community, and forged friendships among residents and neighbors of all ages. We combined the tried and true AARP walking program with the Blue Zones principles to give Albert Lea residents another tool to live longer, better.

Natural movement throughout the day — especially walking — is a way of life in Blue Zones around the world. We wanted Albert Lea residents to replicate this healthy concept. That’s why the walking moai program encouraged walks to typical destinations and provided incentives for people to walk together, strengthening ties between neighbors of all ages.

Connecting the Community

The numbers don’t tell the entire story of the friendships made neighbors connected and experiences shared. If you ask participants, you’ll probably hear 300 different stories about what this experience has meant to them.

Experiences like:

Meeting long-standing neighbors for the very first time, and learning new important details of their lives, like the names of their kids.

 Introducing friends to new volunteer opportunities. Alice Peterson took a new friend to the food shelf and introduced her to a volunteer opportunity.

Gathering kids of the walking moai teams from one neighborhood for outside “movie night” projected on a side of a house.

 Ending the walk by gathering on the corner to catch up on each other’s lives — or even to retire to someone’s back deck for a “moaitini” or glass of wine.

What’s next?

The walking moai experience will be a big part of the Vitality Project success story. In telling your story through the aarp.org/bluezonesproject website and other national media connections, we will have the opportunity to show other communities how to make something like this happen.

Now, it’s up to you to keep the momentum going in Albert Lea. I urge walkers to join as volunteers on the walking school buses this fall. Help show the rest of the world that we can get kids walking to school again, to decrease their chance of becoming obese, and increase their ability to learn.

I am incredibly proud of how Albert Lea took this concept and made it into a big success. Three community leaders made it happen. A big thank you to Nancy VanderWaerdt, Catherine Buboltz and Jeshua Erickson, who successfully led this effort and helped to prove that one small town in America can show the rest of the world how to make healthy changes

Keep walking

And more importantly, keep the bonds of friendship that have been started by the walking moais. You have started something unique and worthwhile. Another easy way to live longer, better.

Dan Buettner is the founder of the Blue Zones organization.