Wilton YMCA Pedals Wellness

Wellness is coming to Wilton.

On Sept. 11, First Selectman Bill Brennan will lead a family bicycle parade to kickoff the "Celebrate a Healthier Wilton" campaign. The idea is to get residents to eat healthier and become more active. To support the initiative, the town received a $52,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"Obesity doesn't appear to be prevalent here, but most Wilton students don't meet physical fitness standards," said Karen Strickland, Development Director for the Wilton Y.

The foundation invited Connecticut with Tennessee and Kentucky to apply for the grant.

"It identified Connecticut as a state where childhood obesity is growing at alarming rates," Strickland told the Wilton Conservation Commission last Wednesday night. The Wilton Y was one of six Y's in the state to win the grant.

Connecticut's adult obesity rate has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 12 percent in 1990 to 20 percent today. Nationally, more than 50 percent of all obese 6-year-olds will become obese adults. Statewide, more than 3,000 people die annually from obesity and its complications.

Obese children are at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, asthma, and heart disease. Strickland cited several culprits as causing the trend.

"Driving is the default mode of transportation even for short trips," she said, adding that some people drive from the Village Market to the CVS across the street.

Also, she said the town's streetscape makes it hard to walk, bike, or run. Another problem is that many kids spend too much time watching television or playing on the computer.

The grant money will establish a wellness zone, wellness kiosks to display directions to parks and walking distances. The route, which includes four schools, all of Wilton Center, Trackside Teen Center, Comstock Community Center, Merwin Meadows and the high school athletic fields, reaches from Olmstead Hill at the north, the Wilton YMCA at the east, Wolfpit Road at the south and Middlebrook School at the west.

Strickland asked the commission to consider placing bike racks around town.

The parade will start at noon from Allen's Meadows and end at the Wilton Center gazebo. During the afternoon people can see exercise demonstrations, tips on bike safety, the unveiling of bike racks and wellness kiosks.

Commission member Kim Young asked how to make biking safer.

"We hope the bicycle parade in the zone will help, but once you get outside the zone it's not that safe," Strickland said. "Even for people who are more than recreational bikers it isn't that safe. The roads are curvy, bumpy and narrow, and cars go pretty fast."

In the zone people can bike on the sidewalks so long as they don't block pedestrians or go too fast.