CENTERVILLE — Appanoose County has a chance to be number one in the state. According to Joyce Bieber, executive director of the Centerville-Rathbun Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, Appanoose County is ranked second in the state for participation in the Live Healthy Iowa 100 Day Challenge as of Friday, Feb. 3.
The newly formed Appanoose County Wellness Coalition had wanted Appannose to be the number one county in the state in terms of participation and pushed hard to get people across the county to sign up for the 2012 contest. Their efforts seem to be paying off.
The groups stated goal was to get 1,200 people or about 10 percent of the county's population to participate, and current numbers have the participation rate at 21.09 percent. That's more than double the coalition's initial goal, but is still actually about 1.5 percent behind the top ranked Union County, which currently has a participation rate of 22.55 percent.
That means that more than 2,000 people in Appanoose County are currently participating in the 100 Day Challenge, completely eclipsing last year's number of 40 participants, which led the county to be ranked 83 out of 99.
Union County is home to Creston and is similar in populatlion to Appanoose County.
Bieber urges people to join and help Appanoose County win the Community Cup in May. Teams may still sign up at www.livehealthyiowa.org until Wednesday, Feb. 29. The challenge is currently only in its second week.
"The governor has made the Healthiest State Initiative a priority and it should be our priority, too," said Bieber. "We all talk about wanting to make changes in our county and this is the perfect opportunity to make a difference."
