Wrap Up

If you walked "around" Gage County, you would have walked approx. 120 miles. That seems like a long way to walk, but that was the goal we wanted everyone to strive for during the six-week event. You could count your miles while working, doing yard/garden work, shopping, playing games with the children, exercising, or walking on the trails. We had one person comment that while wearing her pedometer at work, she was logging over four miles per day. She said she had no idea that she walked that far everyday. Wearing the pedometer was a good incentive to keep walking and keep track of how much you walked each day.

We had 101 walkers turn in a completed log, out of the 440 walkers that were registered. That is nearly 25%...a real good return rate. Walkers were joined by friends, family members, co-workers, spouses and pets on many of their walks. For most of the walkers, the daily distance walked at the beginning of the six week period was greatly surpassed by the miles they were recording at the end of the six weeks. Walkers reported walking many of the trails in Beatrice, as well as in surrounding communities, the Homestead National Monument and trails in other states including Missouri and Kansas. There were many positive comments about the new Chautauqua-to-Riverside Trail.

We had numerous participants in the "WALK-ABOUT GAGE COUNTY" event that walked even farther than the 120-mile goal during the six-week promotion. Of the 101 participants that turned in their completed log, there was one person that walked more than 690 miles, one person that walked more than 300 miles, seven persons that walked more than 200 miles, and 21 persons that walked more than 100 miles, during the six week event. The total miles that the 101 persons who turned in their logs, recorded during the six week event was 8,783 miles (that's an average of almost 87 miles per man, woman and child). Folks, that is a lot of miles. Think about this...that is over seven times the circumference of the whole state of Nebraska.


We had a lot of positive comments from participants during the six week event with many requests to repeat the project next year. It seems that adults and children benefited in may ways from the experience. Besides the obvious benefits of walking; like improving your cardio-vascular fitness and weight loss, there was a very obvious secondary benefit we experienced during this six week event. That was the benefit of family and friends spending some quality time with one another. That experience, in itself, made the whole promotion well worth the effort.

The PATCH committee welcomes comments and/or suggestions on the "WALK ABOUT GAGE COUNTY" project. If we do decide to promote a walking program again next year, we would appreciate your feed back. You can contact Sharon Langvardt by clicking on her name and emailing your comments to her. We want to thank everyone again that helped make this project such a huge success. This would include the PATCH members that helped organize the event, solicit funds and materials for the event and helped at the seven weekly trail walks. This would also include the businesses and civic groups who donated money and materials that were used as snacks and prizes, and the City Library Staff for helping with the sign up sheets and the collection of the completed logs. A special thank-you goes out to the families who participated week after week in each of the walks and who logged their miles religiously . The weather didn't always cooperate, so the folks that did show up each week deserve special recognition.

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE!

		To: "Walk-About Gage County" page


	SEVEN TIMES AROUND THE WHOLE STATE!!