Blue Cross Blue Shield Offers National Fitness Campaign Program Grants

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota has formed a statewide partnership with National Fitness Campaign (NFC) to launch $500,000 in grant funding for municipalities and schools across New York, to support the goal of providing free world-class fitness to all Minnesotans in 2023. This funding will be allocated to support municipalities, schools, and organizations across the state in joining the growing NFC wellness campaign building healthy infrastructure to smart cities and schools of the future.

NFC’s award-winning initiative is now planning its 500th Healthy Community in America, and is poised to deliver vital outdoor wellness programs helping to fight the obesity epidemic across the country. The program is designed to bring world-class healthy infrastructure to public spaces with the Fitness Court ®, along with consulting, funding and community programming support. Through the partnership, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and NFC will work with local towns, institutions and organizations who believe wellness is a priority, to bring the campaign to 10 municipalities and schools across Minnesota in 2023.

Application briefings for 2024 will be available later in the year. Members across Minnesota may qualify for funding and partnership in 2024. To learn more about the program and how to qualify, visit nationalfitnesscampaign.com/minnesota.

Flashback: 1981

MRPA Awards Ceremony

Meet Nick Jacobs

Nick Jacobs, parks and recreation director for the City of Otsego, became interested in the profession because his father worked for Three Rivers Park District.

“He recommended I work at Elm Creek Park Reserve as a seasonal parks maintenance worker,” states Jacobs. “I started there my junior year of high school and instantly found passion for what parks and recreation is. Having safe clean spaces where people can recreate is paramount for our profession. I enjoyed working outdoors, operating equipment, and providing spaces everyone could use to do whichever recreation activity they preferred.”

Jacobs explains while he was in college, he was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to work parks maintenance for Sioux County Conservation in Hawarden, Iowa. He worked two summers for their parks and recreation department and was able to see the unique differences in the two park systems.

After graduating, he worked two years as the parks maintenance II for the City of Otsego before becoming the parks and recreation operations coordinator. “This unique position allowed me to still work parks maintenance but also be involved in recreation programming,” Jacobs adds. “With the valuable knowledge and