Eating better and moving more was the name of the game at PowerUp Week (May 5-13).

Communities across the St. Croix Valley and western Wisconsin were inspired to take part in PowerUp festivities ranging from a Cinco de Mayo triathlon and veggie giveaways to an animal hike, geocaching event and birthday celebrations in honor of Chomp, the larger-than-life PowerUp superhero carrot.

In Stillwater, PowerUp Week kicked off on May 5 with the PowerUp Family Cinco de Mayo Triathlon, which brought out more than 75 kids and family members to run, walk and roll. Chomp led children in a warm-up before they pedaled off on the first leg of the race, completed a kid-sized run/walk and ended with a fun burrito bounce (sack race) across the finish line on the beach at Square Lake Park.

PowerUp is a community-wide initiative to make it easy, fun and popular to eat better and move more so that kids can grow up healthy. PowerUp works in partnership with schools, businesses, health care, civic groups and families. It is supported by the Lakeview Health Foundation in partnership with HealthPartners.

By the end of PowerUp Week 2017 – the third annual event:

• More than 1,700 people took part in PowerUp Week activities in communities from Mahtomedi, Minnesota, to Amery, Wisconsin
• 220 children and families took part in the PowerUp Family 2K (Amery) and PowerUp Family Cinco de Mayo Triathlon (Stillwater)
• 225 bags of free vegetables were given away at events in Mahtomedi, Amery and Somerset
• 150 children attended Chomp’s fourth birthday party at four library celebrations in Lake Elmo, Mahtomedi, Amery and Somerset
• 185 people moved and grooved at five dance parties and open gym events in Hudson, Amery, Somerset and Stillwater

“PowerUp Week is a special week for everyone to celebrate with fun ways to eat better, move more and create strong, healthy communities,” said Marna Canterbury, Director of Community Health at Lakeview Hospital. “I was thrilled to see the energy and excitement at the activities this year and hope that people will be inspired to continue finding fun ways to be active and eat well throughout the year.”

Burrito bounce section of the PowerUp Family Cinco de Mayo Triathlon at Square Lake Park in Stillwater.

Chomp celebrated his fourth birthday party at the Lake Elmo Library with gifts of pineapples to his new friends.

One young participant gets on his bike in the PowerUp Family Cinco de Mayo Triathlon.