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Parks director urges exercise

In a major federal study released January 26, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said that Americans have developed dangerously unhealthy habits, including lack of exercise, obesity, smoking and other problems.

"This comes as no surprise," said new Indy parks Director Joe Wynns, "and in fact, other studies have shown that Hoosiers are in even worse shape than the national average."

Joe says that Indy parks is trying to do something to address this problem. "We have almost 60 miles of greenway trails already open here in Indianapolis, and our master plan could well double or triple that in the next few years."

New trails open

Wynns cites the 1999 opening of central sections of the White River Greenway and Town Run Trail Park on the northeast side as examples of Indy Parks' commitment to building convenient free trails for people to exercise.

Referring to the section of the new HHS study which documents the rising proportion of Americans exposed to polluted air, Wynns adds, "If more people use our Greenways for short errands and trips, we'll also contribute to cleaning up our air."

National health goals

HHS Secretary Shalala has launched a "Healthy People 2010" project, with goals for the year 2010. Greenways can help meet some of those goals:

• Reduce the proportion of obese adults from 23 percent of the population to 15 percent
• Reduce the proportion of obese children and adolescents from 11 percent to 5 percent
• Increase the number of adolescents engaging in vigorous physical activity three or more days a week for 20 or more minutes per occasion
• Encourage adults to engage in moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes on a regular basis, if not daily
• Reduce the proportion of people exposed to substandard air

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