With the summer months soon coming upon us, it is not too early to start considering a Labor Day bridge walk in your community. Every year the Michigan Fitness Foundation encourages Michigan communities to host a Labor Day Community Walk to demonstrate their commitment to physical fitness and community involvement.

Labor Day Community Walks are an opportunity to showcase unique parks and recreation spaces in each community and in the past have included activities in public trails, parks and local bridges. These events give residents a local opportunity to participate in Michigan’s tradition of community unity through physical activity on Labor Day.

Every year more than 50,000 Michiganders travel to the Mackinac Bridge to celebrate Michigan’s tradition of physical fitness by participating in the Labor Day Bridge Walk. While not everyone is able to make the trip to the bridge, the Michigan Fitness Foundation would like to give all residents an opportunity to get active on Labor Day.  Each year the Michigan Fitness Foundations encourages communities to get active by hosting local fitness events on Labor Day weekend in conjunction with the Mackinac Bridge walk and run events.

By hosting a Labor Day Community Walk your community can inspire community unity and physical activity during this holiday weekend. We encourage a route length of approximately 5 miles and, if possible, incorporate a community bridge, although communities are welcome to tailor the walk to their unique area. Host communities will receive free promotional materials, a guide to creating and hosting a community walk and can use the Governor’s Council logo on all materials. In addition, your event has the opportunity to be endorsed by the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports. Endorsed events will be promoted by the Michigan Fitness Foundation in order to increase participation and obtain media coverage.

This year Labor Day Community Walks will take place on Monday, September 1, 2014. We hope that you will consider making your community a part of Michigan’s Labor Day tradition. To learn more about the walk, please visit http://michiganfitness.org/labor-day-community-walks. To register your community and receive free support materials, please e-mail marketingevents@michiganfitness.org with the following information:

• Contact name
• Contact number
• Contact e-mail
• Community name
• Location and name of walk
• Description of event
• Number of people expected to participate

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development and land use issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.