Healthy Downtown Business Program Shaping Up Eight Communities in Allegheny County
Wednesday, September 08, 2010?
Pop City Media
Healthy Downtown Business Program
Allegheny Together, a small business revitalization organization, launched the Healthy Downtown Business Program last Wednesday to encourage employees and residents of eight communities to explore their commercial districts by foot.
The program has distributed walking maps to small businesses in Bellevue, Bridgevale, Coraopolis, Elizabeth, Stowe Township, Swissvale, Tarentum, and Verona, which encourage people to get physically fit while supporting downtown revitalization. In addition, they have also distributed walking logs, which allow participants to chart how much they walk through their downtown area.
“We have over 600 people signed up, which exceeds what we anticipated,” says Jessica Mooney, assistant manager of business development for Allegheny County Economic Development.
Business employees can look forward to special awards for their log efforts. At the end of September, the logs will be returned to Allegheny Together, and prizes will be given to the “healthiest downtown business” and “healthiest downtown business employee” in each community.
Allegheny Together was started in 2007 by Allegheny Economic Development in order to “reinvigorate small businesses by bringing residents back to our traditional, walkable shopping districts,” says Dan Onorato, county executive for Allegheny County.
Financial support for the Healthy Downtown Business Program comes form a combination of public and private funds made possible by the Health Department. Allegheny Together hopes to expand the program in the future, by offering more features, such as free pedometers and even more detailed walking maps.
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Source: Jessica Mooney, assistant manager of business development for Allegheny County Economic Development
Dan Onorato, county executive for Allegheny County
Writer: John Farley
Photograph courtesy Mara Dowdy