Pedometer Challenge

        Many students consider winter as being the time to just chill and not do much.  The weather is mostly cold and rainy, with the exception of those rare nice days.  Unless you need to, being outside is not a place many people want to be.  With that in mind, Ms. Amy decided to bring the Pedometer Competition Wellness Challenge to Benson.  The goal of this challenge is to take enough steps to get from Portland, Oregon to Times Square in New York in a three-week span.  The distance to New York is 2,846 miles (5,692,000 steps).  To get there and back, the total distance is 5,692 miles (11,384,000 steps).

When asked what goal is to be accomplished at the end, she replied “This challenge is to bring awareness to students and faculty about how they can become healthier by doing simple things.  For example, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or by parking further away so you have to walk more.  The recommended amount of steps per day is 10,000 for an individual.  This challenge isn’t only about getting enough steps to make it to New York, but to also get people excited about getting in shape.”

This challenge is to get people in shape, to change their desire from being lazy to being active.  According to FASTSTATS.com, heart disease, cancer, and strokes are the leading causes of death in the US.  Since obesity can lead to all of these causes of death, Americans need to change their living habits to an active style. This change needs to start with the youth of America.  Since their whole life is ahead of them, it is reasonable for them to be the first to change.

This challenge consists of 300 people altogether, including 240 students and 60 faculty members.  Even though everyone is working as a whole to get enough steps to get from Portland to New York, the students and the faculty are competing to see which “team” gets the most steps.  The team of teachers led the way by taking over one million steps, which blew away any competition that stood in their way.  Not only is Ms. Amy bringing the challenge to Benson, but she is also trying to motivate participants by showing her enthusiasm.  She often wears a headband that reads “Raisin’ Some Health”.  “I want it to motivate participants even more” she explains, “and possibly even make them want to create their own headband in the end.”

The ending result as of January 28th, 2011, is a combined total of 8,162,743 steps.  That is approximately 73% of the total steps needed to walk to Times Square and back.  Since the goal was to walk only to Times Square, there and back is in a way an extra goal.  If you compare the total steps to the amount of steps to reach the goal, the participants have taken 144% of the required steps!  Benson has definitely risen to the challenge and now participants will hopefully spread their new habits around to make our school healthy and aware.

-Connor Buckley