In our personal lives and as a society, our biggest accomplishments are often the result of an idea, collaboration and a commitment to make the idea reality.
Ten years ago, our very own Phil Heit was in the process of organizing the first-ever New Albany Walking Classic. For some, participating in that inaugural walk was an opportunity for a beautiful stroll around town. Others, like Angela Hobart, zoning officer for the City of New Albany, saw the walk as a life changer. Since that first walk, Angela has lost nearly 100 pounds on her own personal journey to a more healthful lifestyle – and she has never missed a New Albany Walking Classic.
Whatever their motivation, this year’s 500 volunteers and 3,500 walkers from nearly 40 states will participate in what has become the best walking event in America. As great as those numbers are, however, Heit has always viewed the walk as the first in a series of steps to create a healthier community. After the New Albany Walking Classic became a community staple, he shared his full community health vision with the New Albany Community Foundation. Together, they formed Healthy New Albany, a local grassroots initiative dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles with the ultimate goal of making New Albany the healthiest community in the United States. Since its inception, Healthy New Albany has organically connected tens of thousands of people through the Walk, Healthy New Albany Magazine, a lecture series, the community garden and the farmers market.
At the same time Healthy New Albany was being formed, the city of New Albany conducted a study to determine ways to bring more vitality to the Village Center. During the study, City Council determined that increased foot traffic was necessary to attract new retail and restaurant establishments to the Village Center, something residents have been requesting for years. When one of the proposed projects mentioned in the study was a health and fitness center, Mayor Nancy Ferguson invited Heit to join an ad-hoc committee created to explore its feasibility.
After more than three years of planning and a land donation by the New Albany Company, the health and fitness center idea became a reality when the city broke ground in August 2013. In February 2014, in honor of Heit’s contributions and his community health vision, City Council officially named the building the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany.
The 55,000-square-foot Heit Center will for the first time combine fitness, personalized health care and community health programming all in one place for an entire city. It will be a research-based, holistic, community health anchor, offering everyone different choices in how they use the services offered.
The Ohio State University Medical Center’s Health and Fitness Center, a state-of-the-art fitness facility inside the Heit Center, will open this December. Members who join Ohio State’s Health and Fitness Center will pay a monthly fee and work with Ohio State’s medical and fitness experts to develop a customized wellness plan based on results from a comprehensive health assessment and their own personal health goals. Members will also have access to one-on-one wellness coaching, an aquatics area complete with lap pool, group exercise classes and cloud-based technology to monitor progress.
December also marks the opening of more than 5,000 square feet of community space inside the Heit Center to be managed by Healthy New Albany. This space includes meeting rooms, a demonstration kitchen and multiple spaces for diverse community programming for all ages, helping facilitate healthful lifestyles for the entire community, whether residents become fitness center members or not.
Health care offices within the Heit Center will open in early 2015. Our partners, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, will provide integrative medicine, primary care for families and children, sports medicine, physical therapy, orthopedics and many other services.
The Heit Center is a key City Council tool for further Village Center development. It already spurred the first phase of the Market & Main project, a New Albany Company development bringing new retail and restaurants to the Village Center, including Mellow Mushroom and Hudson 29 Kitchen + Drink, a Cameron Mitchell restaurant. This fulfills City Council’s original objective of increasing Village Center vitality while simultaneously adding more parking into our town center and serving as a community health asset for the entire community to enjoy.
People coming together to turn visions into reality and strengthen the community brand. That’s New Albany.
Scott McAfee is a contributing writer and public information officer for the city of New Albany. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
By Scott McAfee, Public Information Officer
