At their recent Sunshine Meeting public work session, the Chester County commissioners received an update from Chester County Health Department director Jeanne Casner announcing a milestone in the WalkWorks ChesCo! challenge. Since the launch of WalkWorks in April 2017, Chester County residents have registered more than 4 billion steps in the program.
WalkWorks ChesCo! is a program that aims to promote, educate and empower county residents to adopt a healthier lifestyle one step at a time by creating more places for walking, supporting and promoting walking groups, coordinating walking challenges and creating a website that allows everyone to track and tally their steps. What began as the county's response to the national Healthiest Cities and Counties Challenge has grown into a program that engages county residents of all ages and that has been replicated by communities in other states.
Throughout 2018, WalkWorks ChesCo! participants were motivated by 18 competitions, including the First Responders Walking Challenge, the Chester County Library Summer Walking Challenge, the Ville to Ville Step Challenge, Chester County Farms Tour and the YMCAs' Y2Y Walking Challenge.
Chester County Commissioner Terence Farrell, who first brought the idea of the Healthiest Cities and Counties Challenge to Chester County, cited various benefits of walking, such as improving mental health, reducing chronic disease risks and burning calories.
One of the key components of the WalkWorks ChesCo! program is the specially designed website that tallies all steps taken by residents who register to participate. The website, http://www.chesco.org/walkworks, syncs with most devices and mobile apps that already track steps, and it also allows users to convert other physical exercise into steps to be manually added.
According to Commissioner Michelle Kichline, more physical activities have been added to the website so that everyone registered can convert more activities into steps. These include swimming, weight lifting, yoga, aerobics fitness classes, circuit training, dancing, and horseback riding.
Casner hopes that participants reach 5 billion steps by April, when the next phase of the challenge will be launched. In planning for the next phase of the challenge, participants in WalkWorks ChesCo! are encouraged to give feedback through a short survey that can be found on the WalkWorks web page. To find the survey and more information about the ChesCo! program and how to register, readers may visit the website.
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