Staff from MC Knoll School, the City of Yorkton, and the Sunrise Health Region will be squaring off this winter in an in motion walking challenge.
Equipped with pedometers, teams of about 20 employees from each organization will measure the number steps they take each week and attempt to improve those figures further than their competitors over a period of five weeks.
The goal?
"Victory at all costs," according to city councillor Bob Maloney-although when pressed, he concedes that promoting healthier lifestyles might have something to do with it as well.
The participants hope that some of the active habits they pick up during the competition will turn out to be permanent. Daily step counts of between six and ten thousand are usually recommended for healthy adults, but most people achieve only a fraction of that.
Inspiring children and youths to get more active is another motivation for the teams. It was the students of MC Knoll, in turn, who inspired the adults by their participation in a similar walking initiative in their school.
"It started with the children-we got 310 pedometers for the children-and then the staff got excited about it," says Principal Gord Gendur.
The MC Knoll staff challenged the health region, and then the city.
Progress in the competition will be measured by degree of improvement rather than the absolute number of steps taken. This should even out any disadvantage that might have hindered participants with more sedentary jobs.
Nearly every lifestyle has room for more physical activity, argues Sunrise VP of Human Resources Christina Denysek, who heads up the health region team.
"That's never an excuse not to get activity. It just means you have to find a different way, a different time to get activity in."
There are no stakes in the competition except the glory of victory and the eternal shame of defeat.
