HEALTHY CEDAR KEY,
HEALTHY GULF!
The site is launched; try it!
October 4, 2015
Some thirty-five people met at the Cedar Key Library to celebrate the launch of the new information-laden resource website entitled Healthy Cedar Key, Healthy Gulf. The creation of Cedar Key Commissioner Sue Colson and the Cedar Key Aquaculture Association Board Member Rosie Cantwell, the website offers help to the needs these two women see around them: lack of employment, documentation, transportation, doctors, mental health facilities, counseling, and much, much more.
…and, indeed, the site does all that.
You may click on the link below at any time.
After the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, Colson and Cantwell, most creatively, combined their thanks to the people “who helped make the website possible” with the story of how the idea developed.
Little Connectedness Extant
For years, as a health care professional, Colson works with many agencies, who, in turn, work with one another to keep area people working, healthy, and able to take care of themselves and their families. These professionals working together understood the sore lack of clear, easy access to for their patients/clients to get the help that they needed, be it doctors, employment, counseling, freedom from abuse, and so on.
Concept Formulated
In 2010, Library Manager Molly Jubitz provided critical impetus in helping the team, by using the snowflake-shaped problem-solving model, focus upon and clarify its direction.
Deepwater Horizon Research Findings
Colson and Cantwell also understood the Healthy Gulf, Healthy Communities effort arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. That effort, under the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Principal Investigator J. Glenn Morris, Jr., MD, MPH & TM, is designed to help Gulf Coast residents recover and strengthen their resiliency in the face of such disasters.
Resiliency Is Built
The NHEIS group includes scientists from five universities, one of which is the University of Florida. (Click on this link for detailed information: Healthy Gulf, Healthy Communitties.) The study resulted in the identification of “12 Pillars,” or columns, upon which future resiliency will rest. The three pillars that Colson and Cantwell thought that they could actualize to help the Cedar Key area were:
- Information sharing
- Mental health
- Physical health care
The NHEIS findings coalesced precisely with those of Colson’s and Cantwell’s cohorts, the health care professionals and the hard-working residents in the area. Hence the two ladies formulated the task: they envisioned the website Healthy Cedar Key, Healthy Gulf designed to share information.
Dollars NeededThe next difficulty was the acquisition of money needed to actually construct the website. They were able to secure the dollars with the help of the University of Florida’s Dr. Andy Kane. The dollars provided paid for the website construction.
All of the many hours, days, and months of communication explaining the vision, content, access, and clientele, was from Colson and Cantwell seated in City Hall or in the wee hours of the morning at both women’s kitchen tables.
Today’s Launch
Today’s launch’s purpose was to thank the people who helped make the website possible and to demonstrate the website to them. Colson and Cantwell thanked Dr. Andy Kane for securing the dollars needed, Cedar Key MultiMedia’s Leslie and Will Valen for constructing the website, the University of Florida’s Bill White who made a hard copy of the website content possible, Linda Reynolds for the incredible hors d oeuvres, Palms Medical’s Eileen Senecal, the Department of Children and Families’ Pamela Zalinka, the University of Florida’s Leslie Sturmer, Star and Pastor Todd Pope, and many more. Colson lead a website tour for the group.
Leadership EssentialDr. Andy Kane took the time to recognize Colson and Cantwell for their leadership, saying that this kind of easier access to information is only possible with strong, determined leaders. Colson described Kane as her “knight on a shining clam” while he said that “she helped me as a mentor.”
The Healthy Cedar Key, Healthy Gulf initiative is a resource guide was created to promote and sustain the physical, spiritual, mental, economic well-being of the community and the protection of the natural environment and all of its resources. Visit http://www.healthycedarkeyhealthygulf.com/
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