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May 10, 2022
Hello, Texoma!
I am thrilled to share with you another installment in our ongoing series highlighting THF grantees. These organizations make a powerful impact within our community in their own distinctive ways. You can directly support their services by giving to THF’s Community Fund. When THF receives a donation to the community fund, 100% of those funds go back to the community to support the area’s greatest needs. Thank you for helping us make a difference right here in Texoma – every single day.
- The THF Team
What happens when the people in one community come together to imagine and create a better, healthier place to live, learn, work, play and worship? True community transformation is born. Imagine Durant, in collaboration with the Choctaw Nation, First United Bank and the Texoma Health Foundation, brought the Blue Zones ProjectⓇ to Durant, Oklahoma, to empower the people of the community to make healthier choices in their everyday lives.
To understand the Blue Zones Project and the work the initiative is doing in Durant, it’s important to understand the larger organization behind it — Imagine Durant.
Imagine Durant is the strategic planning and visioning process initiated by Greg Massey and first put into action in 2015 when business and community leaders of Durant saw a gap in strategic planning for the growth the city was experiencing. Imagine Durant, a 501c3, is a partnership for envisioning the future of Durant through creating community dialogues; focusing on health, education, the environment, the economy, the culture and the community of Durant. Following a three-year visioning process, a strategic plan was developed and three key themes emerged: learning and growth for all; a healthy and connected culture; and a vibrant and thriving community, explains Kara Byrd, Executive Director of Imagine Durant. Once this process was complete, “we knew what and why, but we had no playbook for the how.” Byrd says.
Enter Blue Zones Project, a global movement inspiring people to live longer, more active lives with lower rates of chronic disease. “The Blue Zones Project hits on two of the three key themes of Imagine Durant: a healthy and connected culture and vibrant and thriving community,” explains Brandon Martin, Blue Zones Project Durant Community Engagement Lead.
Blue Zones Project began as a New York Times bestseller by National Geographic Fellow, Dan Buettner. When looking at the areas across the globe where people are living the most vibrant, active lives, Buettner discovered the people in these areas, or “Blue Zones,” as he calls them, all adhere to nine key principles for living longer, healthier and happier lives. Buettner’s research was the catalyst for this global program helping other communities adopt these principles with the hopes that through community engagement, true transformation will take place.
The idea to bring the Blue Zones Project to Durant was initiated in 2019, and the Blue Zones Project Durant was formally launched in 2020. Through Blue Zones, residents and business owners in Durant are focused on improving the well-being of themselves and their neighbors. Together, the Blue Zones Project and the greater Durant community are working to lower obesity rates, smoking and chronic disease to create a healthier, happier place for people to live, work and play.
“We do our strategic work with people, places and policy to enact change in our community and encourage people to create a healthier culture,” Martin explains. He goes on to explain that part of the policy work of Blue Zones Project Durant is focused on sidewalk improvement and the requirement that all new developments in Durant must have sidewalks and lighting, giving people more access to move safely around their community.
“A win for the Blue Zones Project is a win for Imagine Durant. A win for Imagine Durant is a win for Durant,” says Martin. “All of us coming together, that’s how viable change can happen. When we build a culture of connectedness and start worrying more about loving our neighbor, we can better each other for the betterment of our entire community for generations to come.”
“Texoma Health Foundation was one of the very early partners of the Blue Zones Project Durant and an incredible community partner trying to create better health and longevity since day one,” says Byrd. “We are so thankful for their mission and for partnering with us on the Blue Zones Project.”
Imagine Durant and Blue Zones aren’t just about envisioning a healthier future for people living and working in Durant and the greater area; these organizations are also focused on taking practical steps now to enact real change in the lives of the people in their community. “What we do each day makes a difference for the long term, not just in the community, but in the individual’s life,” says Martin. “Each individual should have the opportunity to engage in their own health — they should have the opportunity to have hope. That is a big piece of what we do. A lot of this boils down to: how do we show people that they can have hope for tomorrow? That’s the piece that keeps me engaged with the Blue Zones Project.”
Blue Zones is for the betterment of Durant, through the collaboration of the various sectors and groups that make up the overall community. “Change is hard. It takes time. But it is so necessary,” says Byrd. “People have a role in the future that they want to have. They can engage and lean into projects like this.”
Texoma Health Foundation is thrilled to partner with Imagine Durant, the Choctaw Nation and First United Bank and the Blue Zones Project to encourage community members to take action to improve the health and well-being of all those who live and work in the Durant and greater Texoma area. To learn more about Imagine Durant, visit www.imaginedurant.com. For more on Blue Zones Project, visit www.durant.bluezonesproject.com.
