Step into Health Campaign Honors Top Walkers at Georgetown

A Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) service provider and staff member were recently awarded prizes as part of the Step into Health Be-an-Active-Campus competition. Hosted by the Aspire Zone Foundation under the supervision of Aspetar’s Healthy Lifestyle Program, the competition challenges students, faculty, and staff at Qatar-based tertiary institutions to escalate their activity levels by walking more than 10,000 steps a day.

As part of the program, GU-Q’s Ratnasingam Sinthathurai and Jim MacGregor were selected as two of the top walkers from the University. During the November to December 2016 period, Sinthathurai averaged 15,796 steps a day, while MacGregor averaged 13,070.

Winners from each of the participating universities were randomly selected from those who had exceeded the recommended average of 10,000 steps a day. Those who were chosen received a gift voucher from a local sports store and a gift bag of sporting goods to encourage them to continue to live a less sedentary lifestyle.

The Step into Health Be-an-Active-Campus is an annual initiative to promote healthy living in Qatar. Participants who volunteer for the program are provided with pedometers and a dedicated step-counting mobile app to track their progress towards the daily step goal.

Last year, GU-Q was awarded first place out of 15 competing universities, after over 260 GU-Q staff, faculty, students, and service providers logged 1.26 million steps during the six-month-long program.