Cork Employees take 1st, 2nd and 3rd place with a combined 8 Million Steps!
Teams from Cork City Council, Cork University Hospital and Cork County Council took the top three spots in the 2015 Pedometer Challenge. More than one and a half billion steps were taken by 986 teams from 53 of Ireland’s largest workplaces as part of the Smarter Travel Workplaces Annual Pedometer Challenge. The Pedometer Challenge is organised by the National Transport Authority in partnership with the Irish Heart Foundation.
The overall winners of the Smarter Travel Workplaces Pedometer Challenge are “Unfinished Business’ from Cork City Council who clocked up an impressive team average of 1,002,216 steps over four weeks. Congratulating the winning team on behalf of Cork City Council, Anita Lenihan said: ‘I would like to congratulate the winners. They came second in 2014 and were so determined to win this year they renamed their team Unfinished Business’.
Anne Graham, Chief Executive of the National Transport Authority commented: ‘We are delighted with the continued growth and success of the Pedometer Challenge. Now in its eighth year, this event encourages participants to incorporate walking into their daily routine and to consider replacing some or all of their car commutes with walking. Participants also report a boost in staff morale and enjoying being part of a team at their workplace. Last year’s Pedometer Challenge raised over €10,000 for the Irish Heart Foundation and we hope to exceed this amount in 2015.’
The desk-based Leaderboard was topped by a team from Cork County Council. Commenting on the win, Niall O’Keeffe from Cork County Council said: ‘We are delighted that one of our teams has topped the desk-based Leaderboard. The Challenge is an excellent incentive to get more active and to form new habits, like walking at lunchtime, taking the stairs instead of the lift or joining a regular walking group. Congratulations to everyone who participated.’
Cora Buriel from Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin was the winner of the Irish Heart Foundation sponsored prize, which is a place on their overseas walk in 2016. The Best Workplace Awards went to Roscommon General Hospital and Atkins for being the workplaces with the highest percentage uptake among staff in the Pedometer Challenge.
The Smarter Travel Workplaces Pedometer Challenge, which is organised by the National Transport Authority in partnership with the Irish Heart Foundation, ran for a four week period, and ended on the 4th of October 2015.
