Step it Up Challenge reaches new heights, more than doubles original goal

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

One-hundred-sixty-three participants climbed more than 1 million steps, roughly 115 miles, for the Step it Up Challenge in June.

Chief Wellness Officer Suzy Harrington worked with Jared Cole, a communications specialist for Langston University, to encourage Oklahoma State University system-wide employees to get together to climb 50,000 steps, the equivalent to climbing Mount Everest.

“Since we surpassed that goal in the first week, we made a new challenge to reach the Karman line, where the atmosphere ends and space begins,” Cole said. “That’s exactly 562,430 steps. By the end of the month, we hit 1,040,106 steps. Most other step challenges only go as far as Mount Everest, so this is an incredible turnout, especially for our first time at this.”

Cole came up with the idea and brought it to Harrington. OSU Information Technology createdthe Step it Up website.

“I put formulas on there to help people keep track of the numbers of steps they’ve taken,” Cole said. “We also set up a poster contest for the different departments to see what types of posters the people wanted to see. These helped encourage other people to participate.”

Of the 163 participants, 104 were from the OSU-Stillwater campus, 50 from the other OSU campuses and 8 were from Langston University. The last participant was from Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Oklahoma.

“I am thrilled that we exceeded the initial goal of climbing Mt. Everest in the first week,” Harrington said. “Langston University did a great job of spearheading this system-wide America’s Healthiest Campus challenge. Taking the steps is one simple way to increase physical activity.”

Cole hopes to have this challenge be a resource for other schools to look to for ideas. He said the website used to track the number of steps will still be functional for anyone who wants to use it for personal challenges.

“I’m blown away by the enthusiasm and engagement by the schools,” he said. “I never expected to see so many people work together to do something I didn’t think was possible.”

For the original story about the June Step it Up Challenge, visit okla.st/1LtTwmF. Visit AmericasHealthiestCampus.com to learn about upcoming wellness events and challenges.

Story by Matt Cohlmia