October 9th marked the end of the 10th Annual Cleveland County Step One Challenge. This walking contest, sponsored by the Cleveland County Health Department and the Alliance for Health, is a community-wide approach to increasing physical activity and supporting obesity prevention strategies for all residents of the county. This year the Step One Challenge boasted 659 individuals on 112 teams, walking 159,659,575 million steps, which converts to 75,596 miles.
This year's top 3 overall winners were from PPG:
1) Raising a Little Health: average of 1,126,412 steps per team member
2) Worn Out Soles: average of 926,557 steps per team member
3) Proud Walkers: average of 708,529 steps per team member
This year's top 3 individuals with the most overall steps were all from PPG's Raising a Little Health team:
1) Donnie Thompson: 1,314,116 steps
2) Rachin Thurman: 1,306,736 steps
3) Kayley Ruppe: 1,274,762 steps
Walking can be achieved easily by most people, and serves as an inexpensive way of increasing your physical activity levels. Proven health benefits of walking include improved physical condition, improved cardiovascular functioning, increased calorie expenditure, as well as reductions in cholesterol and high blood pressure.
The Cleveland County Health Department and the Alliance for Health would like to congratulate this year's winners and thank all participants in the Step One Challenge for being active participants in the improvement of your own health. For more information please see our website at www.steponechallenge.org.