In October, Mayor Hawkins sponsored a first of its kind walking challenge for the community.  Not only was it a great way to encourage active walking during the day, but it also shined a light on just how active some people in the community are, especially walking champion Loa Dawn Thorpe!

At the November City Council meeting, it was hoped that T-shirts could be awarded to the top five participants, and the “traveling trophy” to Loa Dawn, but as is the case with people on the move, it was not possible to get everyone together at once. 

Mayor Hawkins noted, “Since we have been doing this and it has been so much fun, I would like to expand it for next year. Each Saturday in October we could do a special event and have cash prizes. I would love to do cash prizes for the walking challenge, but I don’t know how to count all of our steps without it being on an honor system. For the Mayor’s Walking Challenge, they gave us Fitbits for our first year. They have expanded that to include other trackers. I hate to limit this to only those who have trackers, but I will have a year to get it figured out, and maybe we could make it so we could give cash prizes. I would like to use the $1,000 I receive from the Mayor’s Walking Challenge for our own community walking challenge. I think they will let me do that.”

As Hawkins also noted, most participants were not in it for the prizes, but for the fun way to get some exercise in with friends virtually and in person.  Carrie Jensen said, “This challenge has been so fun! It has held me accountable towards my own walking goals, but has also pushed me past those goals seeing how everyone else was doing! Can’t wait for the next one!”

Heather Howe noted, “I just want to say I have had a great time doing the walking Challenge. It’s hard sitting a a desk all day, but this kept me motivated to get out and walk to and from work. Having a daily goal helped me to just keep moving.”

Loa Dawn Thorpe came in literally twelve miles ahead of the pack, with 608,845 steps.  The only one who had a prayer of catching her was Lucinda Nimer, who racked up 543,085, which is still awfully impressive.  The rest of the top twelve (why not?) is as follows:

Andrea Bleazard, 513,508; Britney Leckie, 493,091; Holly Llewelllyn, 469,758; Kim Mikkelsen 463,707; Carrie Jensen, 451,311; Joan Hawkins, 406926; Jennifer Neilson, 402713; Mary Ellen Knudsen, 335,452; Heather Howe, 307,622; Ann Briggs, 291,554.