Good Neighbors, Good Health: What Blaine, Washington Is Teaching the Rest of Us

 

When Blaine mayor Mary Lou Steward proclaimed September 28 as Good Neighbor Day, it wasn’t just a feel-good gesture. It was a public recognition of something researchers at Washington State University (WSU) are making increasingly clear: healthy communities start with healthy neighboring.

The push for Good Neighbor Day originated from work being done at WSU Whatcom County Extension’s Community Health Oriented Resilience Data Science (CHORDS) lab, where rural health specialists are examining the overlooked but powerful link between social connection and long-term health. Their research—and the community effort growing around it—offers valuable lessons for communities everywhere.

1. The Big Argument: Neighboring Is a Public Health Strategy

Assistant professor and rural health promotion specialist Shawna Beese, whose background blends nursing, prevention science, and neighborhood research, makes a compelling case: Chronic disease is often rooted not only in biology, but in place—and the people in that place.

Her dissertation focused on allostatic load, the wear-and-tear effect of chronic stress on the body. What she found is especially relevant today:

• People spend most of their lives inside their own neighborhoods.
• That environment—and the social interactions (or lack of them) within it—shapes baseline stress.
• Elevated stress indicators predict future chronic disease.

In other words, your neighborhood can raise or lower your risk for long-term illness based on relationships, trust, connection, safety, and belonging.

Beese puts it plainly: “It’s also how we neighbor with each other – that social connection piece – that is actually driving a significant amount of those stress indicators.”

This is a profound reframing. For decades, public health has emphasized walkability, traffic design, safety, and environmental hazards. While those matter, WSU’s research says we are missing an equally powerful determinant: the quality of relationships with the people next door.

2. The Lost “Neighboring Muscle”—and Why It Matters Now

Beese points out something many Americans feel intuitively:

“We’ve actually grown further apart from our neighbors in the last half century.”

This trend accelerated post-pandemic, when loneliness, isolation, and mistrust reached historic levels. At the same time, survey after survey shows people want deeper neighborhood connections—even if they aren’t sure how to start.

What Blaine and Whatcom County are experiencing is not unique. It mirrors a national shift:

• Loneliness is now considered a public health epidemic.
• Social isolation increases the risk of premature death as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
• Communities want belonging but lack rituals and structures to create it.

Good Neighbor Day became a doorway for the community to begin rebuilding those lost habits of connection.

3. WSU Extension’s Model: Neighboring as Prevention Science

To turn research into local action, WSU Extension is rolling out a two-part community class series:

Neighborhood Prevention Science 101: A session explaining the prevention science framework—essentially, how communities can reduce health risks upstream by shaping their environment and behaviors, including social behaviors.

Neighboring as a Health Promotion Strategy: A deeper dive into practical, everyday actions residents can take to build healthier relationships and lower chronic stress.

This approach treats neighborliness not as nostalgia or courtesy but as evidence-based prevention work—a kind of community-level health intervention that anyone can participate in.

4. Collaboration and Coalition-Building: The Power Behind the Movement

Two community groups are helping turn the research into real-world change:

Blaine-Birch Bay (BBB) Collective: A resource council built to bring diverse partners—residents, agencies, nonprofits—into one room to share efforts, build alignment, and act on needs.

Birch Bay-Blaine Thrives: A youth-focused prevention coalition involving local leaders like the mayor, police chief, and school counselors, with a focus on strengthening youth and family environments.

These are not theoretical exercises. They’re practical, community-based structures where:

• Local leaders sit at the same table.
• Residents have a voice.
• Projects move from conversation to action.
• Social connection becomes a measurable health resource.

As program specialist Pennie Allsop notes, attendance is growing—and that momentum signals something sustainable and deeply needed.

5. Key Lessons for Other Communities

The Blaine experience offers five clear takeaways for any city, county, or neighborhood:

Lesson 1: Health is hyperlocal. Where people spend their time—and who they interact with daily—matters profoundly for long-term health.

Lesson 2: Neighboring must be rebuilt intentionally. After 50+ years of social retreat, the skills and habits of “being a good neighbor” need to be relearned and practiced.

Lesson 3: Neighboring reduces chronic stress. Warm, reliable relationships in a neighborhood lower allostatic load, which reduces risk for chronic disease.

Lesson 4: Prevention science belongs in everyday life. Community health isn’t something that happens only in clinics; it happens on sidewalks, porches, driveways, and parks.

Lesson 5: Collaboration makes neighboring scalable. Coalitions like BBB Collective and Birch Bay-Blaine Thrives create the infrastructure that allows individual neighborly actions to become community-wide culture shifts.

6. The Core Message: Community Is Medicine

Mayor Mary Lou Steward captured the heart of the effort: “As far as I’m concerned, every day should be a good neighbor day.”

This is not simply civic cheerleading. It’s a grounded public health truth: When people look out for each other, their bodies, minds, and communities grow healthier.

WSU Extension’s work in Whatcom County is giving communities a replicable model—a framework that can be adapted anywhere—to rebuild the social fabric we’ve lost and strengthen the “neighborhood health ecosystem” that surrounds every resident.

Their argument is clear:

• Neighboring is not optional.
• It is protective.
• It is measurable.
• It is scalable.
• And it is essential for long-term health.

If more communities follow Blaine’s lead, Good Neighbor Day may become something far larger: a national movement recognizing that the path to better health runs right through our own neighborhoods—and begins with the people living next door.

You can read the original news article here.

Written by David L. Burton

MORE INFORMATION

Take the Engaged Neighbor pledge and become part of a movement! The pledge outlines five categories and 20 principles to guide you toward becoming an engaged neighbor. Sign the pledge at https://nomoregoodneighbors.com. Individuals who take the pledge do get special invitations to future events online and in person. Contact the blog author, David L. Burton via email at dburton541@yahoo.com or burtond@missouri.edu. You can also visit his website at https://engagedneighbor.com.