Senior Architect Esin Pektas, RA, winner of RAND's Step It UP Charity Challenge, totaled 677,841 steps and raised $660 for WinNYC.
Based on the popularity of our UP Band competition last spring, RAND recently held another Step It UP competition—this time as a RAND Gives Back fundraiser for our favorite charities. Each participant had a daily step goal (10,000 steps minimum; more for the super-active steppers) and teams were pitted against other teams. Steps were tracked by our Jawbone UP bands, with participants raising money for the charity of their choice with each step they took.
With charities ranging from cancer research to support for wounded veterans to suicide prevention, the competition kicked off with a fervor and continued at a frantic pace. It also led to some determined efforts by participants, such as leaving their warm homes at 11:30 at night to walk in the cold just to make sure they met their daily step goal by midnight, jogging in place in front of the television, and doubling up treadmill sessions to make up for being deskbound most of the day.
The competition also created a noticeable shift in RAND’s office culture. Elevators were suddenly less crowded as participants took the stairs for additional steps. Employees took the long way round to their desks and spent their lunch hours on the treadmill in the office exercise room. Non-participating employees wondered if their Stepping UP co-workers were pledging for some sort of fitness fraternity or if they joined a health cult. It was nothing that extreme, of course. Our steppers were just plain committed.
And did that commitment show: At the end of the month-long competition, the 19 UP Band participants totaled 5,590,021 steps (roughly 2,795 miles based on approximately 2,000 steps per mile) and raised a total of $4,070 for 18 charities. Talk about walking the walk! Leading the pack was the winner of RAND's first Step It UP competition, Esin Pektas, with a total of 677,841 steps for the month, including the most in a single day with 30,665!
As part of our RAND Gives Back program, we will continue our commitment to contributing and volunteering in our community, making a positive impact one step at a time.
Jeanine Smith is the Marketing Associate at RAND.
