Fort HealthCare Announces Results of the 2018 Rock the Walk Challenge

On Tuesday, November 6^th, the seventh annual Fort HealthCare Rock the Walk Challenge came to a close. Over 380 participants spent six weeks developing healthy habits, and worked to increase the amount of exercise minutes they were doing. This challenge also encourages participants to develop a base and routine with physical activity to help increase motivation to stay active over the winter months. This year’s participants reported a total of 603,499 minutes, which breaks down to just over 10,000 hours, 419 days and 59 weeks of combined physical activity minutes.

The Fort HealthCare Rock the Walk Challenge is offered free of charge each fall, and is open to all community members as part of an overall effort to promote health and align with Fort HealthCare’s Mission and Vision which states, [to] “Improve the health and well-being of our community”.

While the Rock the Walk Challenge monitors exercise minutes, it is less about the total number of minutes accrued, and more about the quality of life gained through making healthy improvements. Each week, in addition to logging exercise minutes, participants read a health-related educational piece and complete a quiz about the information they read. The various health topics for the Rock the Walk Challenge included blood pressure, glucose/diabetes, BMI (Body Mass Index) and Active Lifestyles.

From late-September to early November, 250 participants reached the projected goal of exercising at least 150 minutes per week (900 minutes total), and 178 participants exercised over 1260 minutes for the duration of the challenge. The top two individuals who had the highest exercise minutes of the challenge had well over 20,000 minutes each, with 11 other individuals who finished between 5,000 and 19,999 total minutes.

When asked about why our top prize winners wanted to participate in the challenge, Megan Becker (1^st place winner) commented, “I wanted to keep myself busy and stay on track” and that she “Likes the challenges because it makes me put a little hop to my step”.

Everyone that actively participated was eligible for prizes, provided by Fort HealthCare and through the generosity of Tomorrow’s Hope, which aims to support activities that have a direct impact on individuals who are touched by various life-limiting diseases. Fort HealthCare would like to give big congratulations to all who participated, especially this year’s prize winners:

1^st Place Winner – Megan Becker

2^nd Place Winner – Dionne Weishoff

3^rd Place Winner – Cindy Suchanek

900-1260 minutes of exercise (10 winners randomly selected) – Sheila Hiller, Wendy Cartwright, Kathleen Church, Karen Kopp, Jane Humes, Mindy Craig, Michelle Hall, Sheryl Krause, Stacie Allard, Natalie Busshardt.

Over 1260 minutes of exercise (10 winners randomly selected) – Leah Fritsche, Jessica Speth, Suzanne McKechnie, Kalinda Shultz, Kassy Smith, Katie Jeffery, Linda Dunlap, Rebecca Uecker, Catherine Paul, Lisa Koeppel.

The Rock the Walk Challenge is one of many Fort HealthCare opportunities that foster partnerships between local workplaces and community coalitions. Another thank you to the Cambridge Wellness Collaborative, Creek Healthy Initiative Coalition (CHIC), Fort Healthy, Jefferson United Motivating People to Wellness (JUMP), Lake Mills Wellness Coalition, and Working for Whitewater’s Wellness (W3) coalitions for rallying their communities around healthy behavior change. Fort HealthCare offers the Rock the Walk Challenge and other programs throughout the year as part of an overall mission to improve the health and well-being of the community. Through programs such as the Rock the Walk Challenge, residents encouraged to become active participants in their own health and well-being, all contributing to Fort HealthCare’s vision to be the healthiest community in Wisconsin.

For more information on Fort HealthCare Community Health and Wellness initiatives and the County Health Rankings, please visit FortHealthCare.com/wellness