Iowa Football Legend Stops At MHP To Talk Health and Wellness

Community members came out to MHP to meet and hear from legendary Iowa quarterback Chuck Long Tuesday.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Iowa Hawkeyes Football legend Chuck Long was at Mahaska Health Partnership on Tuesday afternoon to speak about wellness.

The ‘Active Iowa Index’ was recently released, and Mahaska County was picked as one of the twenty counties to highlight for wellness.

Ann Smith, Community Wellness Coordinator for Mahaska Health Partnership, has been a part of bringing many wellness activities to the community, including farm visits and events at farmers market in Oskaloosa.

“Mahaska Health Partnership is an advocate for wellbeing in the community,” says Smith. “This is just another facet of wellbeing. Just another way we can get information out to people on how easy it is to be well, and what wellness is.”

Smith says that anyone in the community is welcome to reach out to her about helping their business and employees get healthier. Those could be simple suggestions on healthy snacks, volunteer opportunities, “It could be so many different avenues for wellbeing,” said Smith.

Events like the one held on Tuesday help educate the community about health and wellbeing, and was an opportunity to meet the legendary Hawkeye Chuck Long.

Long was on hand to talk about the new ‘Active Iowa Index’ and its mission to provide health and wellness opportunities, to educate and motivate all Iowans to live a healthy lifestyle.

The Iowa Sports Foundation created the ‘Active Iowa Index’ as a measurement of participation in select healthy and active opportunities.

Long, an All-American quarterback for the University of Iowa, was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

Long then went on to play eight seasons in the NFL with the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams.

Long took time to sign autographs and pose for pictures before the presentation.