Crow Wing Energized Hosts 6th Annual Health And Wellness Summit

Crow Wing Energized hosted their annual Health and Wellness Summit in Brainerd today. People from around the community attended the summit with the goal of “turning the curve” on healthier habits.

“The Crow Wing Energized Summit is always about increasing health in our community. We do that through some different goal groups like mental health and healthy choices,” said Tom Gonzalez, a mental health discussion facilitator during the summit.

This year, Crow Wing Energized is focusing on positive behavior changes in order to “Turn The Curve” on healthier habits.

“Our keynote speaker was actually walking us through a process of coming up with some new ideas on how to impact health in Crow Wing County,” added Gonzalez.

This is the sixth year of Crow Wing Energized hosting the summit, and over 200 people from around the community attended.

During the summit Crow Wing Energized was recognized with a Trailblazer Award from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.

“We have this Trailblazer Award really to recognize innovation and health improvement across Minnesota,” said Dan Trajano, Blue Cross Blue Shield Senior Medical Director.

Blue Cross awarded Crow Wing Energized for their grassroots approach to bettering the health of the community.

“A group like Crow Wing Energized, which takes the community in a really grassroots approach, can do a lot to advance the health of that community beyond what the traditional healthcare system can do,” added Trajano.

At the summit, Crow Wing Energized focused on four goal groups: healthy choices, mental fitness, workplace wellness, and community connections.

“Basically, those are four really important thematic areas to the community, and some of them have actually not improved. So it’s really critical at this juncture that there are other ways of creative problem solving,” said Christine Chastain, the keynote speaker at the summit.

The organizers really want to drive home that it is a community effort.

“Our goal is to always not just have conversations amongst professionals but also amongst community members, too,” Gonzalez said.

“It’s really important that all of the stakeholders speak to each other because it’s a system and ecosystem, so nobody can do it on their own. Behavior change is notoriously difficult so you just need all the help you can get from wherever it can come in the community,” added Chastain. “And however that can be supported.”