The First Tweetup of the Let’s Move Campaign

The following is a guest post from Douglas Naegele, President at Infield Health – a mobile health company based in Washington, DC. Doug recounts his experience as an invited attendee at the very first Twitter inspired Let’s Move event. You can follow Doug on Twitter as @textandshout

I recently had the pleasure of attending the first Tweetup surrounding Michele Obama’s Let’s Move initiative. The White House hosted the event, and tied it to a harvest of the White House garden by two DC elementary schools.

Before the harvest, 15 followers of @LetsMove gathered on the South Lawn to meet one another and hear from Let’s Move Executive Director Dr. Judith Palfrey. She outlined the vision for Let’s Move in 2012: Making exercise and play a regular part of each child’s day…every day. In addition, she outlined efforts surrounding food labeling and partnering with food manufacturers to provide healthy alternatives to families. In the end, all agreed that real decision-making happens at the parent-child level, and it was everyone’s responsibility to support healthy options.

White House Chef Sam Kass gave a tour of the garden, pointing out produce consumed by the First Family. In addition, much of the crop is donated to local school lunch programs and local shelters. White House Beekeeper Charlie Brandt explained how his nearby beehive provides honey for the kitchen and pollination for the garden.

The Let’s Move Tweetup is part of the White House’s larger initiative on reaching out to, and bringing in, Twitter followers. Previous WH Tweetups centered around “Ask the Press Secretary” and “Ask the President” at a Maryland Town Hall. On October 13, it will host a Tweetup surrounding the state visit of President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea.

See photos and tweets from the event here: http://bit.ly/qj0X9k

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