Salinas makes a play for a major community health initiative for longer lives.

In a valley known for its green, Salinas is hoping to turn blue. Led by the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, regional leaders around the county’s largest city are courting a national health initiative called the Blue Zones Project to initiate huge health changes for residents that include goals like lowering obesity and smoking rates, and making healthy choices easier, according to SVMHS spokesperson Karina Rusk.

“This is an opportunity for community-wide well-being,” Rusk says. “It’s not a quick fix, eat-less-exercise-more initiative, it’s a very encompassing community commitment to live healthier and happier.”

The Blue Zones Project is based on 2004 research done by National Geographic fellow and best-selling author Dan Buettner, who visited five regions in the world – Loma Linda, California; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; and Okinawa, Japan – with the highest concentration of people who are 100 years or older. He dubbed these regions “Blue Zones,” and has written articles and books chronicling why the people in blue zones seem to be happier and healthier.

Buettner and partners identified nine characteristics of a healthy community, including walkability and access to recreation, individual sense of purpose, sense of belonging, eating a more plant-based diet, stress reduction and even a glass of wine every day with friends or food.

In 2009, the Blue Zones Project chose a test city in Albert Lea, Minnesota, to try out Buettner’s findings. In one year they reported a 49-percent drop in health-care claims for city workers and a 21-percent reduction in absenteeism at area companies. One estimate projected that participants added 2.9 years to their lifespans. Currently, more than 40 communities across the country are participating.

A Blue Zones site team is scheduled to meet with community leaders on Aug. 14 and 15 to assess whether Salinas is ready for the multi-faceted and multi-year initiative that would include making policy changes. The team is meeting one-on-one with Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter, CSU Monterey Bay President Eduardo Ochoa and other leaders. Rusk expects they’ll know within a couple of months whether the city is chosen to initiate its own blue zone project, which would last three to five years. Funding could come from grants and other sources down the road.

The public is invited to a reception and Blue Zones Project presentation at 5pm Tuesday, Aug. 14 at CSUMB @ Salinas City Center, and a presentation 9am-11am Wednesday at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital.