Let's Get 1 Million Indigenous People Moving!

Contributed by: Native American Health Center

Completed 3/14/09 with 200 participants

    Another successful Running is My High 5k/10k run/walk for 2009 was held at Lake Merritt in downtown Oakland on Saturday, March 14, 2009! With over 200 participants, the word is spreading and community organizations are participating in making the event healthy themselves! This year’s theme for Native, Healthy and Green event inspired many Native community organizations to display healthy Native traditional foods as well as traditional Native activities – such as traditional Plains Indian games and traditional forms of dancing.

 According to the American Diabetes Association, 14.5 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives who receive care from the Indian Health Service have been diagnosed with diabetes, a total of 107,775 people. On average, American Indians and Alaska Natives are 2.2 times more likely to have diagnosed diabetes as non-Hispanic whites of similar age. One tribe in Arizona has the highest rate of diabetes in the world. About 50 percent of these adults between the ages of 30 and 64 have diabetes.

The incidence of type 2 diabetes in youth is on the rise and prevention is the key to halting this unfolding epidemic. The recently completed Diabetes Prevention Program Study conclusively showed that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes can be greatly reduced by eating a healthy diet and engaging in regular physical activity.

We would like to thank the community for keeping this event alive! We would also like to thank all the participating organizations and a special thanks to our sponsors including Native American Health Center’s Family & Child Guidance Clinic, East Bay Dental Department, Dr. Christine E. Hansen’s Dental Office of Palo Alto and Teammates for Kids Foundation.
 

Best Features:
This year the race kicked off with opening ceremonies that included a prayer and the Friendship House Association of American Indians drumming circle. Later in the morning, Dancing Feathers (San Francisco Girls Youth Dance Troupe) and a Hoop Dancer showcased their cultural sharing with the cheering crowd. Prizes were awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners for both the 5K and 10K male and female categories.

Creative Features:
All youth participating in the race received an eco-friendly hoodie. Children under ages of 6 and seniors ages 65 and older received trophies. All adult runners received aluminum water bottles in our effort to cut down use of plastic bottles at our event. Another highlight of the event was the two recovery lodges which came out to run at the event. Thank you to the Friendship House Association of American Indians and the Tule River Alcoholism Program for coming out! Congratulations for completing the run!!!

Challenges:
The challenges of the event was to bring everyone together to be on the same page. This year our event had double the number of booths in place. We also had more interactive games because of feedback that we got that there was less activity for children so this was something which we had to work with each organization on. We also had 2 sets of emcees instead of 1 pair so we had to make sure everyone knew the event timing.

Future Plans:
We love Just Move It and want to continue cheering our community to be active and healthy everyday!

Lessons Learned

For next year we plan to have different coordinators for different segments of the event. We also plan to have more walkie talkies for the main people (i.e. emcees, coordinators, water booth volunteers) so that we can have more time to be in more places.