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Legislators Who Walked the Walk

By: NWHF Staff | Posted on: May 4th, 2009 | Share:
Categories: Public Health • Urban Issues

To mark this year’s Public Health Week, we challenged Oregon legislators to walk their talk – to become physically active and engage with their community and physical environment, starting with a mile-long walk in the State Capitol Building’s neighborhood. Then, during the week legislators tracked their daily activity using pedometers to monitor all the steps they took. Here are the quite impressive results:

Legislator:  Total Steps Walked 4/6-4/10
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 68,707 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 35,186 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 45,000 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 23,825 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)35,159 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 48,450 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 44,708 steps; 107,903 walking and biking (over 7 days)
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 2,695 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 29,600 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 31,475 steps
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 18,547 steps

Senator Bates is the clear winner with 68,707 steps over the five-day period –
that’s over 34 miles!
Senator Prozanski gets special mention because he’s apparently quite an avid cyclist – including cycling and walking over the full 7-day week, he traveled almost 54 miles!

But we want to recognize and applaud every legislator who took up Senator Ginny Burdick’s and our challenge to walk for the public’s health. In addition to those listed here, we were joined in our public health walk by Senators Jackie Dingfelder and Mark Hass and Representatives Jean Cowan, Mary Nolan, Tobias Read, Nancy Nathanson, and Jules Bailey.

Total steps reported during Public Health Week, 4/6-4/10: 383,352
Total miles equivalent: 191.676
That’s the same thing as walking from Salem to Portland and back, twice.
It’s also halfway to Reno, NV, and almost all the way to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

The event was an important example of the cooperative approaches to health that we need in Oregon. If one of your legislators participated, let them know you appreciate their support for public health - add a comment on this page and click on their name to send them a thank-you email.