Congratulations Albert Lea! You are a certified Blue Zones Community! As the Blue Zones Project organization lead I am very grateful to have the opportunity to engage, on a daily basis, with such a wonderful, caring and clearly outstanding community.

In 2009 we undertook an ambitious experiment. As the pilot community for Blue Zones Project, Albert Lea began to pattern our routines and environment after the world’s longest living people. We enacted a variety of best practices — including enhancing streets to support walking and biking, adopting policies that dive down tobacco use and starting workplace and school programs that promote health and social interaction.

Following our successful pilot, Blue Zones Project has grown to impact more than 1.7 million Americans across 27 communities in seven states. Today, Albert Lea has set the stage for a movement that is turning the tide of obesity and chronic disease. As a community we have tackled public health problems together. Because of our longstanding commitment to community well-being, communities across the country now know that sustainable well-being is more than just possible — it’s the natural course when the environment makes the healthy choice and easy choice.

Thank you Albert Lea — individuals, families, city and community leaders, businesses, schools and all the other partners who have come together to enhance our quality of life. When given a choice, you choose to be bold and in doing so you have re-envisioned Albert Lea’s culture and identity.

Ellen Kehr

organization lead

Blue Zones Project Albert Lea