Dear Mayor:

Congratulations!  Thanks to our efforts 25 municipalities have now “taken the pledge” to join the Mayors Wellness Campaign (MWC).  New Jersey is truly becoming a leader in the promotion and advocacy of community wellness through active living and healthy lifestyles.  In fact, I am encouraged more and more each day that we will meet our goal of reducing obesity in our state by 5% by the year 2010.

Now we need more of you to come on board.  I need your help to gain the official support of your town for this worthy endeavor by passing a resolution, signing a proclamation, or going online to www.mayorswellnesscampaign.org and agreeing to the “Online Pledge.”  A sample resolution and proclamation can be down loaded on the aforementioned website (click on Communications found on the menu bar).

It’s easy.  At the bottom of the MWC homepage is a link which says “Sign Your Pledge Here.”  This will take you to a page which asks you to agree to sign a pledge reading:

As Mayor of (fill in your municipality), I pledge to work cooperatively with the Mayors Wellness Campaign to implement new programs which will promote active living and healthier lifestyles for the men, women and children of our community.  I am committed to evaluating and reporting the programs we implement in our community.

Simply provide the contact information as instructed and you will be an official member of the MWC.  It is important that you provide the MWC with the name of a contact person in your office so that they can keep you updated on new programs and activities.

As most of you know, the New Jersey State League of Municipalities (NJLM) has joined with the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute and Rutgers University in this new effort to fight obesity, particularly childhood obesity, in our state.  The MWC supports mayors as champions of community health.  The goal is to increase opportunities for New Jersey residents to participate in daily physical activity with a long-term goal of reducing health care costs secondary to obesity. 

The MWC is an important initiative of the NJLM.  Those towns which join the MWC prior to September 15th will receive special recognition in our League Magazine which will be distributed at the Convention in November.  As you know, this is our most read issue.