WILLIAMSON, W.Va. – The city of Williamson is one of six winners of the RWJF Culture of Health Prize, awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The prize honors communities that are harnessing the collective power of leaders, partners and stakeholders to help residents live healthier, more productive lives. The announcement came Monday at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Williamson will receive a cash prize of $25,000 in recognition of the community’s “commitment to building a culture of health.”
The award will be made to the Williamson Health and Wellness Center.
“This award reflects years of patience and perseverance that has catalyzed a holistic model we have all come to call ‘Sustainable Williamson,’ a collaborative project of the city of Williamson and the Williamson Health and Wellness Center,” said Dr. Dino Beckett, D.O, Williamson Health and Wellness Center CEO and board chairman of the Williamson Redevelopment Authority.
“The true winner of this prize is the community itself, who has, and continues to embody, the spiritual fuel necessary to breathe life into central Appalachia’s emerging culture of health,” Beckett said.
Williamson is being praised for its innovative strategies of linking health and innovation through a holistic strategy that includes connecting community gardens, farmers markets and local businesses with monthly 5Ks, lunch walk challenges and much more…