Students challenged to take 2.5 million steps

Photo: Kayla Collins

TAKING STEPS— Students from the Guy E. Rowe Elementary School hold up their pedometers Tuesday afternoon during the Club Rowe after-school program. The students are being challenged to collectively take 2.5 million steps between now and the end of school on June 14. 

OXFORD HILLS — Between now and the end of school on June 14, nearly 80 young elementary school students in Norway and Paris were challenged to take 2.5 million steps as part of a community-wide effort to increase physical activity. 

As of Wednesday, they had taken 2 million and reset their goal to 1 billion.

Club Rowe and Destination Paris, two after-school programs that support childhood health, are working with the students from sixth grade down to pre-k. The program leaders hope to educate the students on healthy living and the importance of daily exercise, said Program Director Stacey LaFlamme. 

Both Guy E. Rowe and Paris Elementary Schools have joined the 5210 Let's Go! program, said LaFlamme, which is a nationally-recognized child obesity prevention program designed to increase healthy eating and active living in children.

Through the program, both schools received a grant last week to provide pedometers for the students to "monitor their steps to see how active or inactive they are, and to challenge them each day to take more steps than before," said LaFlamme.

Within just the first week of the challenge, the older students in the Club Rowe after-school program had already taken a combined 1 million steps, she said. 

"We have a competition between our two programs to see who can get there first," she said, "and we haven't even totaled our younger kids yet."

The winning program will receive new volleyball equipment purchased by the losing program, said LaFlamme.

Once the goal of 2.5 million steps is reached, a family Field Day will be held to celebrate the accomplishment. During the Field Day, there will be different activities for children to participate in, such as kickball, relay races, and other healthy activities.

"Our kids are very excited about it," said LaFlamme of the competition.

If the average adult took 2.5 million steps, they would carry that person all the way to Chicago, Ill.

"We have them wearing pedometers while they are at the program. They are monitoring their steps and are always excited to show you," said LaFlamme. "It beeps when they reach their goal for the day."

According to LaFlamme, the younger students have a goal to reach 3,000 steps each day. The older students have a goal to reach 5,000 steps, she said.

"They are creaming that goal," she said, a week ago. "Originally, when I wrote the grant, I wrote it for 1 million steps between now and the end of school. The grant committee that reviewed it thought it was a little ambitious. ... But our kids have already reached the 2 million."

Students have 17 more weeks to reach the other half-million steps. LaFlamme said that this is the first year anything like this has happened.

"The goal is to get the kids to be more active and get them thinking about active lifestyles," she said. "We are working, as a program, to decrease unhealthy choices, like unhealthy snacks. We are trying to teach kids about healthy lifestyles ... so decreasing our unhealthy choices for food, but increasing our activities and showing them a fun way to do it."

Statistics show that the average sedentary person takes, on average, 1,000 steps per day, while the average active person takes 3,000 steps daily.

An adult who takes 1,000 steps will have walked less than half of a mile, while 3,000 steps will carry the average person 1.5 miles.

According to LaFlamme, Club Rowe is encouraging students and staff to wear pedometers all day long and to document how many steps they take each night before bed.

Parents are being asked to help their child to remember to wear their pedometer each day, and to help their child document their steps.

The students will be awarded a certificate for every milestone they reach, said LaFlamme. Club Rowe will also display large stars at the school and during the program for each child who reaches these milestones, she said.

"I think they will reach the goal in no time," she said.