St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm Lead Gardener Laura Schmidt, right, accepts the 2011 Nutrition community wellness champion award from Sitka Health Summit Steering Committee Member Alyssa Sexton.

The 2012 Sitka Health Summit is coming up, and nominations for the community wellness awards are being accepted now. These awards highlight people and groups in Sitka who are making our community a healthier place to live.

The Sitka Local Foods Network has its roots in the Sitka Health Summit. In 2008, two of the community health priorities dealt with local food security issues — starting a public market for local food and artisans, and building more community gardens and a community greenhouse. In 2010, two more community priorities dealt with local food — planting 200 fruit trees in Sitka and getting more local, wild fish into the menus at local schools.

The community health priorities from the 2011 Sitka Health Summit were to start a community composting project (Sick-A-Waste), develop plans for a new Sitka Community Playground that will be American Disabled Act-accessible, and get more Sitka people active through renewing our status as a Bicycle Friendly Community and launching a Parks Prescription program where local medical providers prescribe time outdoors in our parks.

Anyway, here is the announcement about the community wellness award nominations.

SITKA, Aug. 1, 2012 — Do you have a friend or neighbor you think is a fine example of a healthy role model or wellness champion? The steering committee for the sixth annual Sitka Health Summit, “Working Together for a Healthier Sitka,” is accepting nominations for awards that will be presented during this year’s summit, which takes place Oct. 3-6 at various locations around Sitka.

These awards are for Sitka residents who have made outstanding contributions or served as role models in one of six categories — physical activity, nutrition, safety/injury prevention, tobacco prevention/control, holistic health and general wellness. We will honor adults, youth, elders, policy makers, health care providers and Sitkans of all walks of life who make our community a healthier place to live. The awards will be presented during the Sitka Health Summit Awards celebration, which takes place on Wednesday night, Oct. 3, at the Sheet’ká Kwáan Naa Kahídi.

Each nomination should include a brief description of why this individual or group deserves an award, and it should provide us with contact information for both the nominator and the nominee. The awards are our way to recognize and thank Sitka’s unsung heroes of community wellness for their contributions to Sitka’s health.

Nominations should be received by Penny Lehmann no later than Tuesday, Aug. 28. Please e-mail nominations to sitkahealthsummit@yahoo.com, telephone them into Penny at 747-3255, or mail them to Penny Lehmann, Sitka Public Health Center, 210 Moller Dr., Sitka, AK 99835.

The Sitka Health Summit started in 2007 after officials from the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) and Sitka Community Hospital met and decided they wanted to build a bridge of cooperation between their two organizations. SEARHC and Sitka Community Hospital continue to be major sponsors in this community event that involves other health care organizations, schools, businesses, non-profits and other groups concerned about the health and wellness of Sitka. The vision of the Sitka Health Summit is “to serve our great state as a model for community wellness by creating a healthy community where Sitkans strive for and enjoy a high quality of life.” You can learn more about the Sitka Health Summit and check out past Community Wellness Award winners by going to http://www.sitkahealthsummit.com/.