Reducing the risk of coronary heart disease, improving blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and lowering the risk of obesity are just a handful of the benefits associated with walking. For a group of University of Miami employees, pounding the pavement also resulted in an additional benefit: a sit-down lunch with UM’s top ’Cane.
On May 15 President Donna E. Shalala hosted a special luncheon at the Faculty Club for the top ten participants in the Department of Wellness and Recreation’s Walking ’Canes, a 12-week program designed to get employees to “move” and increase their daily step count to at least 10,000 steps per day. More than 200 employees from all three campuses participated in this year’s Walking ’Canes, logging an average of 11,089 steps per day. Pedometers were given out at the beginning of the 12-week program so that participants could log their daily step counts.
Shannon Needham, project coordinator in Facilities Design and Construction, and Dimitrios Papamichail, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, were the top two winners of this year’s Walking ’Canes, taking home round-trip, plan-ahead tickets on American Airlines, compliments of the UM Travel Management department.
The top ten participants lost an average of 15 pounds, with one walker losing an impressive 24 pounds.
Walking ’Canes, which is offered at the beginning of each calendar year, is open to all UM faculty and staff. For more information, log on to the Herbert Wellness Center website or call 305-284-LIFE (5433).