Photo Courtesy of Christopher Ziemnowicz.
Spring is the season of rebirth, when the grass is finally green again, the sun is high in the sky, and people can break out of their lazy winter habits to exercise in the beautiful weather. To respond to the Spring spirit and motivate Concord community to stay active, Concord University’s Wellness Committee developed the Walking Initiative, which kicked off Monday, March 23 with a new mission statement “to improve wellness at Concord University through education, advocacy, and wellness initiatives; and strive to foster lifelong wellness in all domains for faculty, staff, and students at Concord University.”
According to Dr. Wesley Meeteer, Professor of Physical Education, the Wellness Committee’s goal is to develop and implement initiatives around campus that will serve the students, faculty and staff by getting and keeping everyone on campus active as well as educating everyone on campus about developing healthier living habits in all wellness areas (Physical, Emotional, Occupational, Social, Intellectual, and Spiritual). Currently, the Wellness Committee runs two programs which include the Spring Walking Initiative and the Fall Wellness Fair. The Committee is constantly working to provide more opportunities, classes, and trainings for the Concord community.
Meeteer explains this program’s main goal is to increase the activity for the entire Concord community. Most activity initiatives focus only on students but “we wanted to increase the activity levels for everyone working for or attending Concord University,” he says. Research has shown that being moderately active is important for all people regardless of height, weight, race, and gender and can reduce the risk of premature mortality.
In order to stay moderately active, Meeteer suggests walking at least 10000 steps per day, being active for 150 minutes a week or being vigorously active for 75 minutes a week for an average person.
The walking initiative’s first objective is to make people aware of their current activity levels and use pedometers to count steps. This year, the Committee developed a four-person team design to motivate and keep all participants active for the entire challenge to reach a goal of at least 10000 steps per day by the end of the initiative for each individual. “We hope that the faculty/staff and student teams will encourage and challenge each other throughout the process,” says Meeteer.
Last year, there were 65 teams signed up but only 30 could finish. According to the Wellness Committee report, the participants walked a total of 41,262,277 steps last Spring. The students averag walking was 2,500 more steps per day than faculty and staff. It is estimated that the participants would have walked across the United States almost 6 ½ times or about 83% of the way around the Earth. The top finishing student team was the Lurtles and the top finishing faculty/staff team was the Trackers. For this year, the program has 80 teams signed up, include 22 faculty/staff teams and 58 student teams for a total of 300 participants.
Meeteer shares that the biggest problems the program faced last year were the lack of quality pedometers and problems with participants not understanding how to report steps. This year, Meeteer and Nolan have taken steps to reduce the questions and problems with reporting the team’s steps. “We were also able to buy better quality pedometers this year with the help of PEIA, The Social Work Department Grant, and the Against Tobacco Grant,” Meeteer adds.
Dr. Jill Nolan, Professor of Health Education shares that “One of the goals we have talked about in Wellness Committee meetings is removing barriers and facilitating student use of the great resources that Concord has to offer. We have a wonderful Fitness Center, pool, and intramural program. We are also very close to State parks and local recreational opportunities. Many of our students come from southern WV, and it is not a secret that southern WV has some significant health problems. If we could change the norms on campus to have a community where the majority of individuals are living an active lifestyle, then we have the potential to impact the surrounding environment.”
The Wellness Committee is hoping to make the walking initiative become a Concord tradition. “We also hope to introduce other initiatives as well in the years to come,” Nolan adds.
If anyone has questions or concerns with the Walking Initiative please email wellness@concord.edu.