“Movemuni”, a challenge to discover Messina between tradition and mobility was presented today, Friday 3 May at Palazzo Zanca, during a press conference in the presence of the mayor Federico Basile, attended by the deputy mayor Salvatore Mondello, the councilor Liana Cannata, and the member of the Board of Directors of ATM SpA Carla Grillo. The president of the “Crescendo” association Luca Famà participated in the meeting together with the councilor Monica Morabito, from whom the idea of the initiative was born with the participation of the Municipality of Messina in collaboration with the Messina SpA Transport Company.
“Movemuni” is a project that combines play, discovery and promotion of the territory through the renewed sustainable mobility of the city. The initiative will start at 9.30 on Saturday 11 May in Piazza Duomo, where the teams will compete in the first test which will offer an immersive and engaging experience to discover the city, through fun and stimulating challenges, in which participants will have the opportunity to explore Messina from north to south to rediscover city places and immerse yourself in local traditions, as well as appreciate the beauty of the historical, artistic and cultural heritage of the city of the Strait. “The municipal administration is always careful to participate – highlighted Mayor Basile – in initiatives aimed at improving the image of our city through the involvement of the city community. In this case, the idea of the “Crescendo” association, promoter of social, cultural and environmental projects, was shared as it tends to raise awareness of the rediscovery and knowledge of our territory through the use of sustainable mobility tools. Therefore, I invite citizens to participate in these competitions to also grasp all those elements that frame a competition such as aggregation, inclusion, as well as the use of public transport, an important practice of environmental sustainability. Our Transport Company – concluded Basile – constitutes the flagship for an administration which until three or four years ago had twenty buses in service and today has a fleet which is continually growing.
The deputy mayor and councilor for Mobility Mondello continued by underlining his positive opinion regarding the initiative as “we welcome with pleasure the circumstance that young people are interested in investing in their city. This means – said Mondello – that we can hope for a change of direction and at the same time appreciate that young people are the ones who convey the importance of sustainable mobility”. The double value is characterized by knowing that young people want to invest in Messina, this means that we can begin to hope for a change of direction and not send people out of the city.
And Councilor Cannata focused on young people, highlighting that: “Today we are talking about a segment of young people from Messina who, thanks to the association of which they belong, commit themselves daily to the service of as many young people by promoting activities for them to raise awareness of the city reality but also of the services that the city is able to offer . This is the result of a path that we started by listening to the requests and needs of young people and thanks to dialogue and discussion we try as administrators to support them in creating initiatives like this to make them feel an active part of the city, because they themselves are the mechanism that moves the world and a community like that of Messina. Only in this way can we respond to the challenges affecting young people, such as brain drain.” The Councilor for Youth Policies then thanked the Association for its daily commitment, also complimenting the shooting carried out on ATM vehicles on the occasion of the “Movemuni” initiative.
Representing the president of ATM Giuseppe Campagna the member of the Board of Directors Grillo illustrated the methods of the transport service in this regard: “We are happy to contribute as a partner to this important event, which has the dual purpose of enhancing the territory and promoting sustainable mobility. Atm Spa will make its own buses available, on board which participants will be able to move from one point of the city to another using the normal lines in service. Among other things, thanks to the travel planner of our Atm Movup app, team members will be able to have not only real-time information on bus arrival times but also find out which are the best routes to reach the various destinations included in the package more quickly. demonstration. If today the Transport Company can be an active part in such an initiative it is because public transport works and the means are available. The current local transport system guarantees total coverage of the municipal territory and the teams will have no difficulty reaching the places included in the competition. Imagine what would have happened until a few years ago, when there were only 50 buses. We are certain that Movemuni will be a success and an additional opportunity for the people of Messina to test the service offered by Atm Spa and verify that collective mobility has many advantages compared to the private car: it helps to lower air pollution levels, it doesn't cause stress and also saves money.” For the Crescendo association, president Famà explained the mission of the associative group, founded two years ago, “to bring together people who come from different contexts who have different ideologies and backgrounds, to put them all together and through comparison and collaboration we begin to fruit of the best solution for the event”. “Movemuni was born from our way of making the traditions and culture of Messina known and the day dedicated to the event aims to celebrate the beauty of the area through a competition. Specifically, there will be five teams that will compete in different cultural, gastronomic, sporting and linguistic tests. The playful approach was chosen because it is the simplest to entice people to participate in new experiences, to participate it will be enough to complete all the tests and do it in the shortest possible time by managing the itinerary that needs to be done”, this is how he explained the characteristics of the councilor Morabito's initiative.
In Piazza Duomo the teams will face each other in the first test; where the winning team will have the privilege of choosing their starting point for the actual race. Equipped with a map that illustrates the locations and characteristics of the challenges, participants will move exclusively by public transport, discovering suggestive corners and immersing themselves in the liveliness of Messina life. The winning team will be the one that completes the itinerary in the shortest time possible and that has demonstrated the best qualities in the challenges.
The videos produced during the challenges will be used for the historical-artistic-cultural promotion of the city, with the aim of making Messina known to an increasingly wider audience.