5-2-1-0: Get at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, no more than two hours of recreational screen time a day, at least one hour of physical activity a day and zero sugary drinks.

I grew up in a suburban neighborhood that grew in the middle of  cornfields and cow pastures of a dairy farm an hour west of Philadelphia. During the summer months, I would spend all day in the surrounding fields, creeks and woods, either exploring by myself or playing with my brothers and neighborhood friends. By the time I was in middle school I knew every inch and every critter and every plant in every surrounding acre, and I felt like I belonged there. I had an intimate sense of the place where I lived.

This sense of place is one of the things that I admire most about Mainers. Either through fishing, hunting, hiking, foraging or four-wheeling, many Mainers have that same intimate sense of the place where they live. However, there are many who, either through the pull of a busy life or the draw of the ever-present electronic screens, have lost that connection or never developed one. This is particularly true for our youth, a condition the writer Richard Louv refers to as Nature Deficit Disorder.

What’s so important about this sense of place? We now know that the health of people in a community is tightly linked to the condition of the environment in which they live. This includes both the built environment and the natural environment. Disconnection of people from their natural environment leaves it vulnerable to degradation, either through over-development or exploitation.

What can we do to reconnect people, particularly our youth, to the place in which they live? We are lucky to live where we do because there are many efforts going on to do just that. The local school districts are beginning to understand the importance of this issue and are deepening their partnerships with organizations helping to re-establish those connections.

If you’re out in the woods this month you may see a group of high school kids doing trail work. This is the Oxford County Conservation Corps, a collaboration of the University of Maine 4-H Camp and Learning Center at Bryant Pond and Mahoosuc Pathways in partnership with the Western Foothills Land Trust, the Mahoosuc Land Trust, and 5210 Let’s Go! Oxford County. This program provides these students from four county high schools a unique opportunity to get an intimate sense of the place where they live, contribute to their community and even make a few bucks over the summer.

Dr. Carl Costanzi is the 5210 Let’s Go! Program Coordinator for Western Maine Health. You can connect with him at the Healthy Oxford Hills building, at 890-6102 or at [email protected].