It was a year of growth for the Beaver Strides pedometer-based walking program, as term by term more students, faculty and staff “got their move on.” Presented by Student Health Services’ Health Promotion Department, Beaver Strides welcomes participants to join as individuals or to compete in group step challenges. Student Hannah Diers walked away with the honors for the most strides by any one person, ticking off 1,301,696 steps during the six-week Beaver Strides Solo Strider program in spring term!
In addition to walking, striders were able to accumulate steps by practicing healthy habits, such as drinking plenty of water, eating fruits and veggies, and meeting with a Student Health nutritionist or health coach for wellness appointments.
The number of “Solo Striders” increased from 17 participants during fall term, to 63 in winter term and 79 during the spring. The number of steps and miles for winter and spring were just as impressive:
In addition, 19 spring term striders increased their step counts each week, thereby achieving the program goal of progressively stepping it up!
Group Step Challenges added some healthy competition during spring term. Participants joined teams organized through their clubs, organizations, departments, residence halls, classes or other groups. Each participant received a pedometer and teams competed against one another over the course of two weeks to see who could log the most steps.
For spring term 2009, “Three-Legged Monkeys” from the Asian and Pacific Cultural Center won the Group Step Challenge with 1,550,666 steps. The team averaged 129,222 steps per person for the two weeks, about 9,230 steps per person per day.
The other top teams were:
A new program for 2008-09, Move It Mondays encouraged students, faculty and staff to walk together during their Monday lunch breaks, rain or shine. About 50 dedicated walkers participated each term, their weekly walks covering a total of 73 miles throughout the year.
All Beaver Strides participants were invited to a year-end party, where many received prizes for meeting their individual program goals. This was in addition to raffles held throughout the year, when 16 Beaver Strides Prize Packs were given away to weekly raffle winners.
