UnitedHealthcare Helps Renovate Seymour Park Community Garden and Adds New Edible Landscape Garden with Funding from CBS EcoMedia’s WellnessAd
Green Bay Mayor Schmitt and City’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry attend ribbon cutting and celebration with UnitedHealthcare volunteers and community members
(3BL Media) Green Bay, WI – October 2, 2012 – Seymour Parks Community Garden will be undergoing a major renovation and improvement while the park also adds an innovative new Edible Landscape Garden both thanks to financial support from UnitedHealthcare’s advertising through CBS EcoMedia’s WellnessAd program. The garden projects are designed to provide fresh, healthy and affordable produce for the local community and to allow families from lower income neighborhoods access to the garden to learn how to grow their own food organically and inexpensively.
A ribbon cutting celebration hosted by Green Bay Mayor James J. Schmitt, Dawne Cramer, Director of the Green Bay Department of Parks, Recreation & Forestry, Wendy D. Arnone, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin, Employer and Individual, and Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder from CBS EcoMedia Inc. was held today at Seymour Park and was attended by dozens of volunteers from UnitedHealthcare and members of the community.
“UnitedHealthcare is committed to doing its part to eradicate hunger,” said Wendy D. Arnone, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin. “We’re thankful to partner with the city of Green Bay and EcoMedia to make a difference in the lives of Wisconsin residents and to ensure they have access to fresh, nutritious food.”
Before and after the ribbon cutting ceremony, volunteers from UnitedHealthcare prepped the garden areas for planting that will occur in Spring of 2013 by cutting sod, clearing and creating new walkways, building planter boxes and performing other necessary garden prep work.
“The City of Green Bay is exceptionally grateful for the support – both financially and in the form of volunteer hours – that UnitedHealthcare is providing for Seymour Park,” said Mayor Schmitt. “These gardens are outstanding community resources that provide accessible hands-on opportunities for our local citizens to grow, harvest and experience the fresh fruits and vegetables we all need for a healthy, low-fat diet. Thanks to UnitedHealthcare and CBS EcoMedia we’re able to expand the number of people who can garden here and expose park visitors to our Wisconsin native plants and their uses for food and traditional medicinal applications.”
UnitedHealthcare’s funding comes through its partnership with EcoMedia and its unique WellnessAd program that connects advertisers with tangible health and wellness projects in communities across the country.
“In a time when obesity and diabetes rates are skyrocketing working examples of how easy it is to grow your own fruits, vegetables and herbs are essential for a healthier more sustainable future,” said Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia. “EcoMedia is proud to support the expansion and additions of these gardens, thanks to our WellnessAd advertising partner, UnitedHealthcare. Our successful public-private partnership is not only providing multiple environmental benefits for the Green Bay community, it’s also adding vital wellness and education benefits as well.”
The improvements to the existing Seymour Park Community Garden are designed to increase its vegetable production. Other improvements include the addition of a central walkway and paths for ADA access, raised beds to be used for community garden plots and ADA accessible plots, a pizza garden, vertical garden elements, a perimeter fence, a water line and compost bins. The new Edible Landscape Garden area will feature a central walk through a native/edible landscape garden. This area will be open to all park users and food from these plants can be eaten on-site or harvested for later use.
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. UnitedHealthcare serves more than 38 million people and is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.
About the City of Green Bay Department of Parks, Recreation & Forestry
The City of Green Bay is known worldwide for the Green Bay Packers, but we are more than that! We are the 3rd largest city in the State of Wisconsin and hold the distinction of being the earliest settlement in Wisconsin by Europeans in 1634, just 13 years after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock! We cover 44.4 square miles on the bay of Green Bay/Lake Michigan and boast an excellent road system which connects us quickly to the major cities of Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Both our port and airport have an international status.
We relish our four traditional seasons, each bringing its own celebration. (Without the mudslides, wild fires, hurricanes or tornado alley.) Each season is marked with festivals such as Artstreet, International Bayfest and Kids Day. The prevailing summer wind is from the southwest, bringing in the warm breezes from Mexico with a median temperature of 70 degrees. The winter season temperature average of 15 degrees and is welcomed by snowmobilers and snow skiers, both downhill and cross-county.
We are an entrepreneurial and industrious people dedicated to family, faith and our community. Our work ethic is the best in the nation.
About CBS EcoMedia Inc.
At EcoMedia, we’re propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that’s been our mission since we founded the company in 2002. In 2008, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media.
Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide. In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change. Please visit ecomedia.cbs.com to learn more.
By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities. EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.
