For Immediate Release ------- 10/9/2003 Printable Copy

Press Contact: John Sarno Phone: (212) 420-1308

Honeoye, NY, October 9, 2003 – At the Honeoye Central School in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, students are endeavoring to take 10,000 steps a day – a journey translating into a “Walk Across America.”

For the 35 weeks between this Sunday, October 12 th and June 12, 2004, children in grades 3, 4 and 5, as well as some school staff at Honeoye will be wearing pedometers and literally counting their steps in an effort to promote cardiovascular fitness. This walking initiative will conjoin with an education program that finds the children transforming their “steps” into mapped, simulated journeys across America (four different cross-country “trips” have been plotted out), and studying the history and geography they encounter along the way.

Utilizing pedometers and a “10,000 Step” program ¾ both designed by The Walker’s Warehouse of Tequesta, Fl, ¾ the Honeoye students and adult participants will embrace a fitness regimen that keeps track of their walking mileage at a centralized location in the elementary school. Ideally, these healthy habits will carry beyond the program’s duration.

“It’s a much more sedentary world than even a decade ago,” said Mary Lou Charland, physical education instructor at the school. “So, we’ve designed this program to encourage healthy habits early on, and to make the students’ “walk” a truly educational journey.” Ms. Charland is coordinating the “Walk Across America” program with the help of Betsy Shaw, a technology assistant at the school.

The Honeoye program is one of many organized walking efforts taking place around the country. New Haven, CT recently launched a community walking program, as did Brooklyn, NY, and other communities are considering similar initiatives.

Such walking programs are a grassroots response to an obesity epidemic in the United States that continues to expand. In recent months, the obesity story has pushed to the forefront of newsmagazines, television specials and daily papers. In doing so, obesity has underscored its status as the nation’s No. 1 public health problem – given its predilection for triggering heart disease, diabetes and myriad other debilitating conditions. Unfortunately, childhood obesity is no small part of this equation.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 64 percent of Americans are overweight, and 31 percent, nearly one in three , are obese. Furthermore, the environment that inherently promotes obesity -- the computer/fast food/automobile culture -- begins its effect with school-age children. This scenario provides the driving motivation behind a program like the one in Honeoye ¾ which kicks off Sunday, October 12 th, and then follows on Tuesday the 14th with a balloon release announcing the program’s inception.

“We want to see our students striving for that ’10,000 Step” goal per day,” notes Ms. Charland. “But it will be an easygoing kind of competition, where the children do their best to incrementally improve their own performance.”

The Walker’s Warehouse ¾ which is providing the pedometers utilized in both the Honeoye and New Haven walking programs ¾ is the nation’s foremost authority for walking resources, and manufactures accessories like the clinically proven PowerBelt® Walking System.

“In encouraging walking, and walking with a means of measuring that workout, we’re not merely suggesting cosmetic physical improvement,” notes Joshua Corn, chief operating officer of The Walker’s Warehouse. “This walking is for basic health and longevity.”

For more information on this innovative walking program, please contact the Honeoye Central School at 8528 Main Street, Honeoye, NY 14471, or Mary Lou Charland at 585-229-5171, x 1106, or through the program’s website at walkaa@honeoye.org. For information on The Walker’s Warehouse, visit their website at www.walkerswarehouse.com, or call 888-972-WALK (9255).