Health and Safety in Granville
Main Street, just off the Four Corners, along a stretch of brick pavement that abuts Broadway, is home to a block long Farmer’s Market, from summer into fall each Saturday morning – attending the Farmer’s Market is as much entertainment as it is shopping for many village and township residents!
There’s a health factor that many of us in Granville swear by, as much as the worth of eating food grown out of the same terrain you’re standing on, and that is the element of knowing your neighbors.
If you know, really know, the people who live next door and across the street and around the corner, there seems to be what the medical folks call “a protective factor” about that kind of knowing and being known.
It makes sense, because if you have neighbors to look out for you, to keep an eye on your house when you’re gone, to pick up the mail and water the plants, they might also be able to lend a hand when you break a leg. It’s that kind of neighbor who brings over a plate of brownies when you move in and a casserole when trouble comes to roost (and even in the most idyllic villages, each of us has trouble perch occasionally on our lives).
So we know each other in Granville: we go to church together, volunteer at the schools together, coach teams out at Wildwood Park or across the creek at Raccoon Valley Park. In fact, it’s hard to stay too long on the sofa, especially in the warmer months, because between the Granville Recreation Commission always coming up with new programs and activities for all ages, the Granville Fellowship’s events and programs for those of more mature years, and the number of parent volunteer opportunities at the schools, there’s always someplace and someone who needs us to get up and get going . . . so we do.
And we still get home in time to watch “Idol.” Unless we’ve gone to help set up equipment for “Granville Idol” . . .
Healthy living and healthful activities are always at the forefront of community conversation around the village. Not just because we have an embarrassment of doctors and medical professionals living in the area (which we do), but there’s a get up and get going mentality that keeps the bike trails and walking paths and fitness centers not just full, but growing. A recent community study showed that a strong consensus existed behind adding to the current network of biking and pedestrian options, and new fitness centers have opened in the last few months, right in the teeth of the economic challenges that we all face.
To echo those old, well-educated settlers, “Mens sana in corpore sano,” a healthy mind in a healthy body is a goal we all help encourage each other to follow, whatever path best gets us there.
Copyright 2009 by Jeff Gill