Fall Activity 2014 Challenge Helped Active Schools Earn Awards
Walking and bicycling are just plain good for you. And fun! So when you combine walking, bicycling and awards for schools, everyone becomes a winner.
Students, families and staff at more than 1,500 schools nationwide are basking in the glow of their participation in the Fire Up Your Feet 2014 Fall Activity Challenge, which aims to increase physical activity before, during and after school. More than 60,000 students, parents, teachers and staff participated in the Challenge by tracking and logging their physical activity throughout the month of October.
Fire Up Your Feet was launched in 2013 as part of Kaiser Permanente Thriving Schools. Schools win awards in several categories, including most overall participation, highest weekly activity tracking numbers, most bicycling, most walking, and more.
A complete list of Fall award recipients is here.
Watching children race down the sidewalk toward me each morning with smiles shows that they want to start their day by moving,” said Andrea Walker, a teacher at Van Buren Elementary in Loveland, Colorado. “It’s been amazing to see the participation at our school grow as more and more students sign up to walk, jog or run laps around our playground. Movement has made a positive difference for the Van Buren Panthers!
Challenge Awards help to support walking school bus programs, the purchase of bike racks, safety vests, incentives for Walking Wednesdays, and traffic safety countermeasures, and help promote more walking and biking and all sorts of quality physical activity.
As of November 2014, Kaiser Permanente and Fire Up Your Feet have awarded more than $200,000 to participating schools.
“Fire Up Your Feet has helped remind us as a family, as a school and as a community just how important physical activity is for the mind, body and soul,” said Kristin Snipes, a parent at Monocacy Valley Montessori School in Frederick County, MD. “Obviously, the chance to win a reward for participation is great motivation, but once you get started, you realize how great it feels to get moving. Anything that gets our families moving is awesome!
The next Activity Challenge will take place between April 13 and May 15, 2015 in Metro Atlanta, Maryland, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Hampshire, SW Washington, Wisconsin, Washington DC and Virginia, and May 1-31 in Oregon, and is open to any K-8 public, private or charter school. Sign up at fireupyourfeet.org.
