It’s no secret that the City of La Quinta has been embracing its Healthy Eating Active Living status for a number of years, particularly when it won the Coachella Valley Health Collaborative’s Healthy City Advocate Award not only once, but three times. However, the real secret is that La Quinta has had a focus on wellness since the 1920s when Walter Morgan came to the desert to build the La Quinta Resort…a relaxing escape from his business in San Francisco.
Nestled among the Santa Rosa Mountains, La Quinta is a natural destination for tranquility, peace and spiritual renewal, and offers a variety of physical activity as well. Biking, hiking, walking paths and over 348 days of sunshine beckon residents and visitors alike to “get physical.” To that end, La Quinta City Council has endeavored to create a city that encompasses physical, social, intellectual, nutritional, as well as artistic and cultural wellness. They work to develop La Quinta not just as another desert community, but as a lifestyle.
Creating a “wellness community” takes a great deal of collaboration with a variety of local public and private organizations to enhance existing services and offer new ones. The city acts as a catalyst to provide services desired by residents. While it doesn’t always directly provide services, it does provide a framework or infrastructure in the case of buildings and parks, financial support or marketing and promotional support.
In collaboration with the YMCA of the Desert, La Quinta’s Fritz Burns public pool offers summer classes including water aerobics, shallow water exercise, swim lessons and swim teams, in addition to fun family events with $1 per person movie nights at the pool.
Another city partner, the La Quinta Boys and Girls Club, provides free open gym nights four nights a week through shared use at their facility located on Moon River Drive and Avenue 50. They offer evening volleyball and basketball which is open to all ages.
Each summer, the City also works with 13 prime golf courses in the valley to provide an affordable Summer Golf League. Courses include Escena, Marriott Shadow Ridge, The Classic Club, and Nicklaus Tournament Course and TPC Stadium at PGA WEST.
More partnerships have blossomed with the recent transformation of the La Quinta Senior Center into the Wellness Center, complete with a state-of-the-art fitness center available to La Quinta residents for the very low price of $50 per year (non-residents $75). The Wellness Center was designed to host a variety of classes, lectures and opportunities for all ages to engage in and/or increase knowledge about health, fitness, art and physical fitness. The Live Well Clinic has been on site to offer weekly Vitamin B12 shots and healthy lecture presentations, and Eisenhower Medical Center has provided a lecture series and health screenings.
La Quinta is building a healthy foundation for its residents one partnership at a time, and the benefits of cooperation have multiplied each year. Summer is no longer a time to hibernate, but a time to explore the many health and wellness opportunities offered.
For more information on activities and opportunities offered, visit www.playinlaquinta.com or call (760) 777.7000.
Comments (3)
I would love to see La Quinta become a more friendly bike town. Have more bike racks, bike lanes and a campaign to “Bike There”. I love La Quinta and it’s a beautiful place to bike. Get healthy and bike.
Thank you for reading, Dianne. See reply below!
Thank you Dianne,
We agree. We continue to add bike lanes where it is safe to add them. We also have added them to all city facilities. We work with local developers and businesses and have asked them to add bike racks too. We are also a supporter of the CV Link, a regional pathway running through nine cities. We believe this will create a healthy and safe access to the high school and local businesses once built. We appreciate your comments.