Elon student unveils Alamance County health campaign for healthier living

Amanda McGee’s wellness campaign is heading into a county where the need is already spelled out in hard numbers: 33.8% of Alamance County residents lived below 200% of the federal poverty level in 2024, above the Healthy NC 2030 target of 27%. That gap gives her Elon University project a clear test case as she prepares to present it at the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum on Tuesday, April 28.

McGee, a senior Communications Fellow and strategic communications major, will present “Designing Accessible Wellness: A Community Health Intervention Campaign for Alamance County Inspired by Blue Zones.” Elon says nearly 400 students will take part in the forum this year, but McGee’s project stands out because it is built around a specific local question: how to make healthier choices feel more reachable in Alamance County, not just more familiar in theory.

Her campaign uses a multi-platform outreach strategy that combines grassroots engagement, social media, tabling at local grocery stores and partnerships with local organizations. The centerpiece is a six-week, workbook-driven workshop that can be completed in person or remotely. The sessions focus on movement, purpose, belonging, rest and diet, with the idea that healthier living should be supported by structure, not just advice.

McGee said she chose Alamance County because healthy living can feel increasingly out of reach and because everyday environments often make unhealthy choices the easiest ones. She also built the campaign around local assets, including nearby hiking trails and community spaces, suggesting a model that could connect residents to places already in the county rather than importing a solution from outside.

The bigger question for Alamance County is whether the project addresses the priorities local officials have already identified. The Alamance County Health Department’s 2024 Community Health Assessment, which is conducted every three years, says the county must continue focusing on housing affordability, food access and food security, access to primary care and mental health. Those concerns are not abstract. They shape whether residents can afford stable housing, reach a doctor, buy healthy food or keep up the routines that make a wellness campaign realistic.

That is where McGee’s proposal will be judged most sharply. The county health department says its community health, outreach and policy team works to influence knowledge, attitudes, practices and policies related to personal and community health. A campaign like McGee’s could fit that mission if it gives county staff, Burlington partners or town leaders a usable outreach framework, clear participation goals and a way to measure whether habits changed over time.

If the project can show who enrolled, who stayed engaged and whether residents actually used the workshop tools, it may offer more than a classroom exercise. In a county still grappling with poverty, food insecurity and access to care, usefulness will matter as much as inspiration.