Drivers driving up and down Brewton’s Belleville Avenue at night may have seen lights on at Brewton Municipal Stadium, but there is no football game being played.
Instead, people can be found running or walking around the facility’s track.
The lights are there to promote exercise in the community, said Vivian Layton with the Brewton Area YMCA.
“Thanks to the Brewton City Board of Education, (Superintendent) Lynn Smith has given the YMCA permission to promote evening exercise with lights at the high school track,” she said. Monday through Thursday evenings from 5:30 until about 8 p.m., lights will be on for evening walks or runs.”
Layton said only a section of the T.R. Miller track lights, not all of them, will be on approximately around sundown.
Promoting exercise has been one of the goals of the Health Kids/Health Communities committee, which is working under the Partnership for a Healthier Escambia County to reduce obesity, particularly among young people.
“The Brewton Area YMCA staff will be supervising the turning on and off of the lights,” Layton said. “This was one of the Healthy Kids/Healthy Communities committee’s goals, to get families walking, running, moving. The lights will not be needed when the time changes and we spring forward.
Layton said the timing of the light project at the stadium comes at a good time as Scale Back Alabama has just begun.
This weekend may be the last time some Alabama residents have a chance to splurge before beginning a 10-week diet as part of the Scale Back Alabama initiative across the state.
For the past five years, citizens across the state have been losing weight — all because of an initiative started by the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Alabama Hospital Association.
For the sixth year in a row, the Scale Back Alabama event will be aimed at helping Alabama’s citizens find healthy alternatives to fatty, high-sugar foods and learn more healthy eating habits. The weight-loss campaign kicked off the week of Monday with teams already gearing up in Brewton and Atmore to be a part of the statewide event.
“We hope that we will see lots of folks taking advantage of the lights being on at the track as they try to meet the 10 pounds down goal in ten weeks,” Layton said.
While it has only been a few weeks in the works about the lights being left on at the stadium, Layton said word is spreading.
“Now that the word is getting out, we are seeing more people taking advantage of the evening walk,” she said. “As the word spreads, we hope to see more.”