In an effort to promote healthy lifestyles on the UIndy campus, the faculty
of the Kinesiology Department initiated the first wellness program for faculty
and staff in January 2006. This initiative was also in conjunction with the
statewide Shape-Up Indiana and Fit-City-Indianapolis programs. The Kinesiology
faculty engaged in multiple activities in order to organize, manage and support
such a large and popular initiative. Such activities included promoting,
fund raising, consulting and leading as well as participating with and motivating
the participants. All paid off as the participation level, the fitness gains
and the completion rate were all above expectations!
In order to appropriately fund the inaugural program, participants paid $10 per individual in enrollment fees (t-shirt, pedometer, awards). These fees coupled with funding from the university and over $5,000 in donations from 19 businesses which provided enough funding for the costs of the program. Financial support became an integral part of the program as the participation success was more than expected (goal = 50; actual = 230). The program began with a January kick-off party and fitness walk around the campus led by the president. The program concluded in May with a celebration for the finishers of the program and special award winners. The final participation profile was 230 participants from 29 different teams representing 25 different areas of the campus community. Each participant recorded his/her total steps each week during a 14 week period. A pedometer was used for recording the weekly performance. Most of the participants (82%) used walking as the preferred form of activity, but others used a conversion chart to record other activities such as swimming or bicycling. To maintain health, the goal was to reach 10,000 steps per day for 14 weeks. This daily target was the same for each participant regardless of his/her baseline fitness level.
At the conclusion of the 14 week program, all results were tallied and reported. In aggregate, all participants averaged over 8 million total steps each week which equals a program total of over 52,000 miles in 14 weeks! Each participant received an ‘R UIndy Fit?’ t-shirt upon the completion of 200,000 steps and the team with the most steps (average) per week was given a large trophy to display in their area. Additional awards included : Most Individual Steps (per month and at the end of program) and Most Improved (each month and at the end of program). Special recognition was given to team leaders and two special contributors: Lisa L. Battiato (Center for Aging and Community) for her example of walking over 3 miles to the president’s office during a monthly challenge; Robbie Morse (Center for Instructional Technology) for his motivation to his team members and assistance with the program. At the conclusion of the program, 200 participants actually completed the entire program, well above the average for similar programs.
Individuals who achieved over 1 million steps in the program (27 total) &ndash View list
Most Steps by Female:
Most Steps by Male:
(Most Improved) Female:
(Most Improved) Male:
Overall Team Winners (most Steps in program):
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