Everett High grad, first lady both passionate about Let’s Move! exercise initiative

Wooded Glenhaven was Diane Mortenson’s playground.

She was Diane Dobler then, a girl who would go on to play soccer and basketball at Everett High School.

“I grew up in Glenhaven,” Mortenson said Monday, remembering her old Everett neighborhood. “We’d be in the woods, back there building treehouses.”

The 1988 Everett High graduate turned her love of sports and the outdoors into a career. With a degree in recreation from Washington State University, the 45-year-old is recreation superintendent for Mercer Island’s Parks and Recreation Department.

“A healthy lifestyle has always been a passion of mine,” she said Monday. Mortenson shares that passion with first lady Michelle Obama. On Sept. 16, the Everett native was part of a White House event where the first lady recognized communities involved in the Let’s Move! initiative.

Mortenson was at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building when the first lady announced that 500 cities, towns and counties had committed to five Let’s Move! goals aimed at creating healthier communities.

“She’s very genuine in her passion,” said Mortenson, who described Obama as inviting and approachable. “She came out to thank the cities represented for their work on the Let’s Move! initiative — to reduce obesity one generation at a time.”

What did the White House serve the crowd for lunch? “A healthy wrap and a salad,” said Mortenson, whose parents, Bill and Beverly Dobler, once ran Chaffee’s department store in downtown Everett. Her sister, Kristin Gebert, teaches math at Everett High.

It’s been five years since Obama launched Let’s Move!, her signature effort to combat childhood obesity. Some have criticized the push for better nutrition and more exercise, but there are signs parents are starting to embrace the first lady’s message.

In 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third of children and teens, ages 6 to 19, were overweight or obese. The federal agency reported last year that the prevalence of obesity among 2- to 4-year-olds had fallen 43 percent between 2004 and 2012.

The first lady’s initiative is separate from the local Get Movin’ summer program, which offers Snohomish County families incentives to stay active.

Edmonds is the only Snohomish County city that signed on to five Let’s Move! goals, according to the National League of Cities, a Let’s Move! partner along with the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The other Washington communities listed on the National League of Cities Let’s Move! website are: Airway Heights, Algona, Auburn, Blaine, Burien, Cheney, Duvall, East Wenatchee, Kenmore, Kirkland, Lacey, Lake Forest Park, Liberty Lake, Mercer Island, Olympia, Port Angeles, Sammamish, Shelton, Shoreline and Tacoma.

The five goals are: “Early Start, Smart Start,” incorporating good nutrition and physical activity into early childhood programs; “MyPlate, Your Place,” displaying a graphic of the federal MyPlate food guide at public venues selling food; “Smart Servings for Students,” providing access to nutritious food before, during and after school and in summer; “Model Food Service,” improving access to healthy, affordable food choices in public venues; and “Active Kids at Play,” mapping local play spaces and developing plans for new programs.

One place Mercer Island is tackling the fifth goal is a unique park where kids get to be builders — like Mortenson was in Glenhaven. The Adventure Playground provides kids with toolboxes and building supplies in a program sponsored by a construction firm. Let’s Move! encourages partnerships in its effort to get kids outside.

“Kids get to build treehouses and forts,” Mortenson said. “We tear it down, and they build it back up the next summer.”

Rather than a plaque, representatives of Let’s Move! cities got a nudge from the first lady.

“She talked about doubling down on the next step, getting back to work,” Mortenson said. “We still have a long road ahead.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.