SALINAS, CA, October 15, 2007…On TV, radio, newspapers and even on staircases, the Steps to a Healthier Salinas’ Value It message is inviting residents to move toward healthier behaviors. That campaign stepped up another notch today when Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) bus ads were added to the mix.

“Forming an advertising partnership with MST proved to be an obvious choice,” explains Dr. David Lees, health program coordinator at Monterey County Health Department. “Not only are the bus signs highly visible, but they complement our message of increasing physical activity – a natural offshoot of bus ridership.”

The Steps’ Value It bus ads, as well as the television, radio and print ads, and the dramatic stair graphics at the Sports Complex and Monterey County Health Department, serve to remind Salinas residents to value their health.

According to County Supervisor Fernando Armenta, MST board chair and co-chair of the Executive Committee of the Council for a Healthier Salinas, “It is encouraging to see partnerships being created for a healthier Salinas. A good public transit system makes for a safer, more active and connected community. And that is what we want for Salinas.”

Steps to a Healthier Salinas, a program in partnership with the Monterey County Health Department and the Center for Disease Control, aims to help Salinas’s residents live longer, better and healthier lives by reducing the burden of diabetes, overweight, obesity and asthma, and addressing three related risk factors – physical inactivity, poor nutrition and tobacco use. For more information about the program, visit www.stepstoahealthiersalinas.org or call Monterey-Salinas Transit toll free at 1-888-MST-BUS1.