Advocates of healthy living in Minneapolis and Olmsted County have had a lot to celebrate in recent months. Last fall — after a month-long push to collect and lift up the stories of ordinary folks who are “making it better” in their workplaces, schools and neighborhoods — the Making It Better Challenge came to a close with more than 450 new relationships, scores of sign-ups for the outreach list, and over a hundred Challenge submissions.

The Making It Better Challenge is a community initiative in Minneapolis and Olmsted County that brings people together to inspire and celebrate healthy everyday choices for everyone. The Challenge is part of the national Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) initiative, launched to address chronic health issues such as diabetes and heart disease by highlighting programs that create access to healthy food and increase physical activity.

The grassroots solutions team had a great time joining forces on the Making It Better Challenge with our friends and colleagues at Haberman, a media and marketing firm that specializes in uncovering and telling the kinds of inspiring and pioneering stories that are often overlooked in our daily lives.

grassroots solutions provided extra organizing power for the Challenge on the ground, integrating our efforts with Haberman’s social and traditional media outreach, to persuade community members to participate. We worked with community partners to identify stories and storytellers and then sought them out at community events, offering water bottles and buttons for eligible submissions. As an added incentive, we also offered six exciting prize packages for six randomly drawn weekly winners and their friends – ranging from reusable shopping bags and a gift card to the farmer’s market to a ski/snowboard package.

While some folks we approached were initially hesitant to say they were making a difference (it’s the Minnesota way!), once they shared their stories they began to see how their personal actions could contribute to community change and, and in some cases, how they were inspiring others to do the same. One young man in Eyota, Minn., worked with his mom to create a farmer’s market in their town so friends and neighbors could enjoy more fresh foods. An employer in Minneapolis stocks the office refrigerator with healthy foods for employees for breakfast and lunch. And schools in both communities have implemented programs to encourage children to be more active and walk to school.

These and many other stories will continue to be collected and shared online, through social events, and in the community, helping to “make it better where we live, work, learn and play.”