City designs brochure to get the community moving

By Elyssa Parnell

eparnell@civitasmedia.com

Inside the Main Street Motion brochure are three routes — green, blue and red. Each route is a different distance from one mile up to two miles, stretching throughout the downtown area. Along with each route is the estimated calorie burn associated with that distance and an estimated brisk walking time of completion.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Main-Street-Motion.jpgInside the Main Street Motion brochure are three routes — green, blue and red. Each route is a different distance from one mile up to two miles, stretching throughout the downtown area. Along with each route is the estimated calorie burn associated with that distance and an estimated brisk walking time of completion. Elyssa Parnell | The Newberry Observer

NEWBERRY — Getting the community up and moving is the concept behind the Newberry Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department’s “Main Street Motion” fitness routes.

Scott Sawyer, director of PRT for the city, said the idea for Main Street Motion came to him on a walk down Main Street one night.

“It looked like there had been a busload that had parked somewhere and unloaded people,” Sawyer said. “There were people walking all up and down Main Street.”

From this, Sawyer said Main Street Motion came to mind and from that idea came a recently released brochure designed to get people walking downtown. It took it more than a year to go from concept to reality.

Assistant City Manager Matt DeWitt said the Newberry County Career Center has a class that uses graphic arts and wanted to know how their students could get practical experience. Using Sawyer’s idea, the students were able to partner with PRT to design the brochure. The class is taught by Tamara Stuart.

While the NCCC helped with the conceptual ideas for the brochure, Robert Summer helped the city with the final layout.

Inside the brochure are three routes — green, blue and red. Each route is a different distance from one mile up to two miles, stretching throughout the downtown area. Along with each route is the estimate calorie burn associated with that distance and an estimated brisk walking time of completion.

Sawyer said he maps his walk on his phone and was able to come up with these routes to include the mentioned information.

“The notion is getting out and walking, but you don’t have to do these routes,” Sawyer said. “You can make up your own route.”

Sawyer said he tried to get varied distances. The routes he said are designed that by following the directions in the brochure, that the walker would be walking as they are supposed to be — against the flow of traffic.

Safety tips can also be found in the brochure.

“The Main Street Motion brochure is a way for the city to promote a healthy and active lifestyle for our residents. Another ancillary benefit to this guide is that it has the opportunity to expose folks to downtown Newberry who may not have ventured downtown is some time,” DeWitt said. “What they will notice, while getting a workout, is that there are more shops open, vibrant, and ready for their business when they return.”

Sawyer said they were able to use funding through an Eat Smart Move More special projects grant.

“They were excited about the idea so they paid for that,” Sawyer said.

Because of the funding from ESMM Newberry County, Sawyer said they wanted to be sure other places were noted in the brochure that the community to get out and walk to.

On the front of the brochure is a photo of a prescription pad. Sawyer and DeWitt said the ultimate goal is to at some point partner with a doctor’s office so they could get patients the “prescription” to get out and walk when necessary.

QR codes can be found on the back of the brochure that when scanned can take you to the city’s new website that has information on shopping and dining.

“Providing active lifestyle resources for our residents is important to City Council and this is what helps attract families to your area and gives seniors an outlet for recreation,” DeWitt said.

The attention to active and healthy lifestyles can also be found in the city’s park renovations. For example, Grant Park has upgraded basketball facilities and Kendall Park now has a new football complex.

At Glenn Street Park, the city built a new tee-ball facility and future park renovations have incorporated walking trails and other fitness amenities.

“Obviously the city of Newberry is a very ‘walkable’ community,” Sawyer said. “Newberry is much like a city within a park — we have so many walkable streets and nice areas.”

Brochures can be found at City Hall, at the PRT office and the Newberry County Chamber of Commerce. They have also been distributed to the Hal Kohn Memorial Library, the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn, Piedmont Technical College and Newberry College’s student affairs and admissions offices.

Boxes were also distributed by a community member to the Wellness Center at Newberry County Memorial Hospital, the Newberry YMCA and various doctors offices.

Reach Elyssa Parnell at 803-276-0625, ext. 1868, or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.