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05/20/2019 12:00 AMThe Board of Selectman (BOS) proclaimed it North Haven Get Into Action Day at its special meeting on May 9 in honor of the efforts of North Haven High School sophomore Gia Iwanec to get people exercising.
“Through all her efforts with the Connecticut beauty pageant…year after year, whether it’s been the Memorial Day parade, whether it’s been lighting the Christmas tree on the green, whether it’s what she’s been doing in school, [Iwanec] has continually represented North Haven with a tremendous amount of class [and] dignity,” said First Selectman Mike Freda.
Iwanec is a competitive dancer at Gloria Jean’s Studio of Dance and a member of the Eastman Dance Company. Also involved with the Miss America Organization, Iwanec currently holds the title of Miss Farmingbury’s Outstanding Teen and is looking to compete for the statewide title in July.
As part of that organization, Iwanec has adopted a platform titled Get Into Action, Healthy Minds, Healthy Body. She has engaged in schoolwide exercise advocacy as well as social media campaigns to that effect.
“Developing my personal platform came easy because I live it each and every day,” Iwanec told the selectmen. “As a dancer, I wanted to share my love of dance and I know firsthand how important it is to take care of our bodies.”
Iwanec said that she broke her message down into the age groups, working to encourage exercise in kids, her peers, and the elderly.
To this end, she works as an assistant dance coach at her studio and embarked on a school tour that has reached 12 schools in 2019 with educational and exercise programs for the students.
“For my generation, it was a bit more challenging,” she said. “I developed a social media ‘Get Into Action’ daily program.”
Citing statistics that put teenagers engaged with social media for up to eight hours per day, Iwanec said that social media posts and challenges are some of the better ways to engage that audience.
Iwanec has also partnered with elderly residence facilities, offering dancing to Frank Sinatra to keep them active.
Iwanec closed her portion of the BOS meeting by leading a pledge to “do more today than [you] did yesterday.”
The BOS presented Iwanec with a signed proclamation of the town’s solidarity in support of her message.