Voting for Outdoor Exercise Areas Has Begun

Coca-Cola in Croatia has launched a project for the construction of outdoor exercise areas, known as active zones, with the aim of encouraging citizens to engage in regular exercise and recreation. Citizens of Croatia can vote starting today for the city where they want an outdoor exercise area, known as an active zone, to be established.

Voting is possible until June 1, 2016, on the website www.pokretzaradost.hr/aktivne-zone, and in the cities that receive the highest number of votes, Coca-Cola will, in agreement and collaboration with the local community, arrange one such zone, which will then be handed over to the city for ownership and permanent use.

Coca-Cola’s partners in the project for the arrangement of active zones are the Faculty of Kinesiology of the University of Zagreb and the Croatian Red Cross, and the project has also been supported by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds.

“The project for the construction of outdoor exercise areas is being launched by Coca-Cola in Croatia as part of its multi-year project Movement for Joy, which encourages citizens to be active and educates them about the importance of a balanced diet and an active lifestyle. We have left it to the citizens to decide where we will set up the active zone. Therefore, I invite everyone to respond in large numbers, vote for their city, and encourage their family members, friends, colleagues, and fellow citizens to do the same and support this project and, of course, to regularly exercise in the active zones once we set them up in their city,” said Maria Anargyrou-Nikolić, General Director of Coca-Cola HBC for Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The voting system is designed to ensure equal standing for all cities, meaning that smaller cities are not at a disadvantage compared to cities with larger populations. Care is also taken regarding the development of the areas where individual cities are located. Indeed, Coca-Cola and the project partners aim to improve the quality of life in smaller cities and less developed areas. The ranking of cities is therefore established based on the ratio of the number of votes for each city and the number of internet connections in that city, which is multiplied by the level of development of that city according to data from the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds.

In the active zones, exercise equipment will be installed that can be used by all interested in an active life and outdoor exercise, and after their opening, free exercise sessions will be organized under the supervision of kinesiologists, as well as workshops and consultations with nutritionists on balanced and quality nutrition. The first active zone will be arranged in Zagreb, and by the end of 2017, Coca-Cola in Croatia will arrange a total of twenty active zones throughout Croatia.

The ambassadors of the project are Mirza Džomba, a former handball player, and Antonija Blaće, a television presenter.