Des Plaines Park District Staff Participates in Steps Challenge

The Des Plaines Park District Wellness Committee helped organize a steps challenge for their employees to compete against five other Park Districts in the northwest suburbs. The other Districts in the challenge were Buffalo Grove, Glenview, Park Ridge, Skokie, and Wilmette. There were over 250 total participants across the Districts with Skokie and Des Plaines getting the highest number of employees to step up to the challenge.

The requirement to join the challenge was one non-perishable food item per person. At the end of the challenge, the first and second place teams would split the food to donate to their local food pantry. Each person was then encouraged to walk or run as much as they could and record their number of steps for six weeks.

The weekly total was updated as Districts sent in their average number of steps. Skokie Park District won this first annual contest with 533,546 average steps per week with Des Plaines Park District coming in second with 505,016.

“We are happy with our second place finish,” said Nicole McNulty, Human Resource Manager and Wellness Committee Chair for the Des Plaines Park District. “This challenge helped get our employees moving and now we get to help our community with a food donation!” The Des Plaines Park District reported a total of 21,210,672 steps for the six-week challenge.

Participants of this year’s challenge enjoyed a celebration in Glenview where top steppers were acknowledged and winners were announced. There are several additional area Park Districts that want to get in on the action for the next challenge planned for fall of 2020.