After spending months grieving the untimely death of his husband, Jesus Lopez’s friend suggested he should sign up for the Mission Inn Run to help him break out of his routine.
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“It takes something like the passing of a loved one for you to really feel fearless,” Lopez said. “I was trying everything and anything, and I figured, ‘You know what? Yeah, let me at least try running a 5K.’”
With the help of a personal trainer, Lopez began preparing for his first 3.1 mile race, but felt like it wasn’t enough. It was then that he received an email from the event organizers listing resources to help train for the race — including a Blue Zones Project Riverside 10-week run club.
Despite feeling hesitant, Lopez decided to join the group and quickly became a fixture. He completed the Blue Zones Project program, entered the race’s starting corral and crossed the finish line in the top 200.
“I’ve never ran like that, and when I did that, I felt so accomplished,” Lopez said. “It was really because of the Blue Zones [Project]. They were very impactful, and I’m forever grateful.”
Lopez is just one of the more than 4,500 residents who participated in a Blue Zones Project Riverside activity over the last year, according to the organization’s annual report.
The Blue Zones Project is a well-being initiative with the goal of improving quality of life by influencing policies, hosting community events and optimizing local services. The initiative launched two years ago in five Riverside County cities.
Both the name of the project, and the overall goal, is based on research into communities where residents experience both longer and healthier lives than the global average. The concept, first introduced by National Geographic explorer Dan Buettner, was then turned into an organization that looks to apply the lessons learned from those “Blue Zones” within participating communities.
The Riverside chapter has until 2030 to accomplish approximately 44 objectives to reach its goal of making the city a Blue Zone-certified community, according to organization’s Community Engagement Lead Grace Manzo. Those objectives, she added, are divided into three categories: people, places and policies.
As part of the list of objectives the team must check-off to get the city certified, the team must engage with at least 40,000 residents above the age of 15 through promoting volunteerism, hosting experiences that promote healthy habits and partnering with pre-existing community organizations. It’s also tasked with convincing 36 schools, 44 restaurants and 14 grocery stores to adopt healthier practices as well as working with local officials to adopt about 30 new policies.
“Those are the minimums we’re aiming for, because if we do, then that’s when we see our environment really nudging us to be healthier in these places where we spend the most time,” Manzo said.
Among other accomplishments in their first year, Manzo said they were able to connect with 4,585 residents, get five Alvord Unified schools and three restaurants Blue Zones approved and advocated for several policies, including a tobacco retail moratorium that later led to the implementation of stricter rules.
She added that the organization took a more conservative approach last year, but was planning to ramp up its efforts in year two, hoping to reach at least 6,000 more residents, bring on 10 more schools and restaurants and hold its first large-scale event in February.
“After the five years, the hope is that we become certified, [and] that we’ve made all the small nudges in our community that we need to make in order for people to just naturally make the healthy choice,” Manzo said. “We hope that we’ve made an impact in the community enough that people are now making the healthy choices in all the different areas, but yeah, we essentially just close down our office.”
After participating in Blue Zones Project Riverside’s running group, Lopez has since volunteered with the organization to host small board game night events as a way to foster community engagement. He said he noticed that people’s personalities transformed week to week as they got more involved with the group.
In Riverside, he added, it could feel easy for someone to get stuck into an isolating routine, but the Blue Zones Project Riverside has provided opportunities to break that pattern and slowly adopt a healthier lifestyle.
“I can’t wait to see later on, where everyone is just gonna want to love being a Riverside community member,” Lopez said. “I know how challenging that’s going to be, but I believe that can be achieved. It’s just going to take a lot of effort and commitment.”
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