Nancy Lugo: How parks aid your health

We need our parks for our health. In Central Florida, we enjoy a great variety of city, county, state, and federal parks. The week of April 18-24, we celebrate National Park Week. In our parks, we can exercise, enjoy shade and fresh air, build community, and strengthen our mental health.

The Trust for Public Land (www.tpl.org) is a non-profit organization that celebrates public land and works to ensure that everyone can walk from home in 10 minutes to parks, gardens, playgrounds, trails, and other natural places. With our sprawl, that is still a challenge but our local municipalities and counties have developed great parks to keep us enjoying the great outdoors. We have parks with swimming pools, parks with outdoor gyms, parks with tennis and basketball courts, and parks with ball fields. We have trails, also called linear parks, for walking, biking and roller blading. We have sunshine and we have SunRail to take us and our bikes to new places too.

When people have access to parks, they exercise more. Check out one of our stellar parks and you will see, especially at both ends of each day, plenty of people, young and old, on the move. Sports like soccer, tennis and softball not only strengthen our muscles and challenge us, but also build team spirit and a sense of belonging. Childhood obesity is a big concern everywhere; the simple fact is that kids need room to move. Parks provide places to run, to play ball, to climb, and to adventure. Without parks, children would be even more inclined to stay indoors with their screens, while our childhood obesity problems would continue to grow. Many of us learned to swim in local parks.

The green spaces in our parks nurture the mind, connecting us with nature and all that is bigger than us. Parks give us a place to celebrate sunrises, sunsets, birthdays, and even corporate parties.

The trees in our parks improve the atmosphere. The verdant canopy can cool the air five to 10 degrees. Leaves filter out pollutants. The natural growth cycles of trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, enriching the air we breathe.

What does it take to have such parks? It takes vision from taxpayers, city and county commissioners, and park leaders. It takes resources. It requires committed people to maintain the parks, caring, feeding, mowing and trimming the vegetation and watching out for any possible hazards.

Some of our park departments have been recognized for excellent operation and service by the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA). CAPRA accreditation is based on alignment with 144 standards for best practices. In the nation, 140 park and recreation agencies have earned CAPRA recognition, including city of Winter Park, city of Lake Mary, and Seminole County.

We have the many gifts of our many parks, including better health. We need to celebrate and preserve our park gems.

Nancy Rudner Lugo is a workplace nurse coach and health care consultant for HealthAction.biz who enjoys our local parks daily. Send her your questions at [email protected]