Starting October 1 – Join the Walk90 Challenge!
Central Floridians are encouraged to join the Walk90 Challenge, a 90-day friendly walking competition sponsored by Healthy Central Florida and its partners Florida Hospital and the Winter Park Health Foundation.
The Walk90 Challenge, which begins Oct. 1, is a free initiative with a goal to have participants take at least 7,000 steps a day. However, each participant is encouraged to set his or her individual goal based on personal health and fitness to ensure all ages and fitness levels feel comfortable joining. The program offers participants a simple online tool to help track their steps which syncs easily with most fitness tracking devices. For anyone who doesn’t have one, a pedometer will be supplied (up to 400).
Individuals as well as schools, faith groups, and businesses are encouraged to participate and promote healthy lifestyles. According to Jill Hamilton Buss, executive director of Healthy Central Florida, “Businesses can encourage employees to take the stairs and have walking meetings. Congregations can rely on each other for encouragement and accountability. And schools can earn cash as they rally faculty, staff and students to walk to school, walk with their families and gain steps for this friendly competition.”
Cash awards and other prizes will be offered to organizations with the greatest number of participants. The school with the most partakers will earn $1,000 with second and third place earning $500 and $250, respectively. The company with the most employees participating will be treated to a catered lunch for up to 20 people, chair massages, and receive recognition. Faith groups with the most walkers will win $300.
Individual participants can also win weekly prizes such as Fitbits, restaurant gift certificates and sports gear. The person with the greatest number of walking steps over the 90 days will win a one-year membership to
RDV Sportsplex.
“The Walk90 Challenge offers fun incentives for our communities to come together and get moving,” Hamilton Buss said. “But walking offers more than improved physical health. Walking gives us the chance to say ‘hi’ to neighbors, to stop and visit – unlike whizzing by in a car at 45 mph. We build strong bodies, minds and communities when we walk and talk together.”
To learn more and to sign up for Walk90, visit healthycentralflorida.org
