Jackson County Walks This Weigh!
Jackson County’s kickoff event was held on October 2nd from 4:30 – 7:00 pm at the Altus Reservoir and Community Center. Our Kick-Off committee began preparing for this event months prior. We had promoted this event through every media outlet available to us (newspaper, radio public service announcements, radio interviews and television). We sent letters out to businesses encouraging them to challenge their competitors/friends to get out and come walk with us. Miss Altus visited six schools to discuss the importance of physical activity and encourage 1,444 students to come out with their parents to walk around the reservoir. All elementary schools in the district received information on the Walk This Weigh on Route 66 elementary school curriculum. Altus Public schools took the extra step and forwarded a Walk This Weigh information letter and web-site link to all their teachers. Even with all the promotion we did, we truly never expected the amount of participation we got!
As our committee arrived at the community center to set up for the event, we were met by people waiting in line to register. Wow! What a great surprise. We quickly set up the tables and chairs for booths, drug out registration forms, pens, pedometers, t-shirts, and began greeting the participants. The one thing that became very obvious was we set our registration table in the wrong location. We had three registration tables set up just as participants walked through the doors. That doorway became congested within minutes. But, it was too late because the registration tables were “surrounded”
The director of RSVP (Retired & Senior Volunteer Program) coordinated volunteers to man Table 1 – Welcome. Their job was to pass out surveys and consent forms and send the participants on to table two. At Table 2 – Registration. Committee members worked frantically to accept the forms, check for signatures, answer questions, hand out the pedometers, passports to health and McDonalds coupons and ultimately send participants on to table three. Our surveys and registration forms has provided us with a database of participants names and addresses for future event. At last table; Table 3 – Pedometer Instruction. Participants received instruction and assistance in calibrating their new pedometer from committee members.
Once the participants went through the registration process, they were free to browse through the community center, which by this point was filled with booths of all kinds. Many of adults made a B-line to free health screenings available from Jackson County Memorial Hospital where they got their height and weight and had their blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol checked. To make the weigh-ins even more fun, pig scales were available for teams to weight as a group! Passports were used to log all of the health screening information to give each participant a benchmark. With passports in hand, each participant could begin setting some goals for themselves.
The children participating in the event were particularly interested in the games and more importantly meeting Miss Oklahoma, Kelly Scott and Miss Altus, Ashley Bledsoe. The intent of the games was to show children they could be active in their play and that there is more to do than sit in front of a screen (t.v. computer or video game). A local photographer volunteered to come out and take pictures of the event. He set up a backdrop and for a small fee participants could get their picture taken with Miss Oklahoma and Miss Altus.
A few minutes before 6:00 p.m., a local radio personality began asking the walkers to make their way to the reservoir for the walk. The committee was even more over whelmed standing in front of the massive group of more than 500 walkers who were anxiously awaiting the shot gun start. At promptly 6:00 p.m. a local police officer fired a blank shot in the air and the 1.8 mile walk began. Miss Oklahoma and Miss Altus led the walk however, it is my understanding that Miss Oklahoma dropped behind by the end of the walk due to the fact she ended up giving one of the children a piggy back ride around the reservoir. The first 100 walkers to cross the finish line received a Jackson County “Walk This Weigh” t-shirt, which was provided by a number of community sponsors. The second 200 walkers received a t-shirt that was donated to all pilot communities by Weight Watchers. Children received a certificate signed by Miss Oklahoma and Miss Altus and every walker received bottled water donated by our local McDonalds.
As a result of Miss Altus, Ashley Bledsoe’s visits to the schools P.E. classes participated in the Walk This Weigh Kick Off by having one thousand nine hundred thirty-nine (1,939) students walk during P.E.
Our Jackson County Walk This Weigh Kick-Off was a lot of hard work for the committee but also a lot of fun. We are thankful that our kick-off was a HUGE success and strongly supported by the community. We look forward to more Walk This Weight events throughout the year.
Jackson County Walk This Weigh Sponsors & Partners
