By Ward Peck
Editor
    “What is happening inside our homes is way more of a threat to the health of our children than anything outside–we’ve been preaching the opposite,” was how Dr. Erik Steele, Chief Medical Officer at Eastern Maine Healthcare described the challenge a new statewide program called “Take it Outside,” is meant to face.
    Steele, who is also the co-chairperson of Gov. John Baldacci’s Council on Physical Education, made the remarks about the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle alongside the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Elizabeth’s Two Lights Park on Tuesday. He was joined by two Gold Medal-winning Olympians, runner Joan Benoit Samuelson snowboarder Seth Wescott, Baldacci, public officials from the state Dept. of Conservation and representatives of a constellation of education, recreation and conservation groups to promote the Take It Outside initiative.
    Take It Outside, according to Dept. of Conservation spokesman and South Portland resident Jim Crocker is designed to encourage young people to reconnect to the outdoors and is based upon the philosophy of Richard Louv. Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder,” highlights the diminished connection between children and the natural world. Louv’s book makes a connection between decreased attendance at national parks, lower sales of bicycles and the increased rates of obesity, early-onset diabetes, attention deficit disorders and other behavioral problems.
    The diminished use of state parks was apparent during the press conference that drew dozens of activists, spectators and members of the press, where the parking lot remained well below capacity on a sunny summer day.
    According to Chris Robinson, Director of the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, organizations throughout the state and the nation have embraced Louv’s philosophy of promoting a return to nature, and free-form physical activity as opposed to organized competitive sports. Robinson points to a $20,000 project at Pond Cove Elementary School that includes a creative play area, planting beds and an outdoor classroom, based upon the concept of “greening the school grounds." The project was made possible through contributions from the Cape Elizabeth Teachers’ Association, the Cape Elizabeth Educational Foundation and CELT. Robinson said CELT still needs roughly $5,000 to complete the outdoor classroom.
    Lynn Richard and education coordinator with the Portland Water District said similar projects are taking place in South Portland, Portland and other towns and cities throughout Cumberland County.
    “We are focusing on schools because that’s where the children are,” Richard said. “And schools are sterile and barren.”
    Samuelson, the Cape Elizabeth resident who founded tomorrow’s Beach-to-Beacon 10K race, now in its 10th year, spoke of Maine’s “huge problem with diabetes and obesity.” Samuelson, also a co-chairperson of the governor’s physical education commission, sounded a theme expressed by a number of speakers–including Wescott, a co-Olympian and her former babysitting charge–that Maine’s natural resources from mountains and lakes to a long shoreline is a perfect laboratory for promoting a deeper and more robust interaction with the outdoors.
    Wescott picked up on that theme.
    “I am inspired by Maine,” Wescott said. “It is this amazing resource.”
    He said much of his summer training in preparation for competition is spent “playing in Maine.”
    Crocker said Take it Outside recognizes that many groups have been pursuing these programs independently. The purpose of the initiative is to “get everyone under one roof and create a clearinghouse of ideas.”
    “We want them to know what the Dept. of Conservation is doing and we want to know what they’re doing,” Crocker said.
    To that end, Baldacci has directed each state agency to evaluate the programs and policies that may be encouraging– or discouraging the public to be more active outside. Those assessments will be discussed at a conference next spring.
    In addition to the health benefits, Baldacci touted the economic benefits of getting more residents to use the state’s recreation resources, noting $13 billion is spent  in the state, largely by vistors to “our big woods and along our rocky coast.”