Steppin’ out — and placing sixth

By Rhonda Simmons

Published: July 20, 2008

Culpeper placed sixth in a national health-related competition held in April.

A total of 251 participants collected 17,036,465 steps during the 2008 Fourth Annual Medical Fitness Week event, which promotes an increase in physical activity level for all ages.

The Powell Wellness Center along with the Medical Fitness Association sponsored the event.

This year’s theme was “Steppin’ out — for a lifetime,” where communities all over the country compete with each other to walk 70,000 steps in seven days in order to help raise awareness in the fight against obesity and other health-related problems.

Wellness Center Director Sandy Boone, an MFA board member, said about 1,000 pedometers were given out to Culpeper participants in order to track their steps during this contest.

“For our first year we did awesome coming in sixth place,” Boone wrote via e-mail on Friday. “We are already gearing up for next year where we hope to finish in the top three.”

The top three communities who achieve the most steps in the allotted time period receive national recognition through press releases, the MFA Web site and attend the annual conference.

According to the MFA Web site, 3 million people receive medical health and wellness programs through medical fitness facilities.

“Medical fitness centers are in key positions to impact the health care of their communities and to partner with the medical community in creating models for success,” the Web site states.

The entire competition hosted 9,000 participants nationwide with an average number of 51,529 steps logged per walker.

North Mississippi Health Services in Tupelo, Miss., the Center for Health Improvement in Hays, Kan., and the Center for Health and Fitness in Redondo Beach, Calif. topped the competition.