Olympus Junior High steps up to win contest

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Nov 17, 2004 by Jennifer Toomer-Cook Deseret Morning News

Experts say people should take 10,000 steps a day for optimal health.

One Olympus Junior High student beat that by more than five times - - a feat that helped lift her school to win a national "Make Every Move Count" fitness contest sponsored by Channel One News.

"It was really hard doing it those last few days, I was so tired," said 13-year-old Natalie Nichols, who took 219,037 steps over four days, or an average of 54,760 steps a day. "It was just fun. I think everyone just had a blast trying to get as many steps in as they could. We were excited to win."

"Make Every Move Count" backs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's VERB program, which aims to improve the physical activity of young people, whose increasingly sedentary lifestyles have contributed to rising childhood obesity rates.

Olympus Junior High entered the contest through Channel One, a newscast delivered to several Utah schools and more than eight million students nationwide.

The contest runs once every month for six months and is expected to involve 90,000 sixth- through eighth-graders nationwide this year.

Channel One selected 20 participating schools, including Olympus and Riverview Junior High in Murray, from across the country. It even filmed a promotional ad at Olympus, inspiring the kids to aim high, P.E. and health teacher Colleen Butterfield said.

The network outfitted 512 Olympus health and P.E. students with pedometers and instructed them to try and log more steps than any other.

Kids took the task seriously, school officials say. They wandered about as they gulped down lunch. They jumped rope in their spare time. They pushed each other to perform and spurred contests among friends.

"It built a lot of school spirit," principal Ben Lems said. "Kids really got into it."

Over four days, Olympus students averaged more than 58,000 steps - - or 14,500 steps a day, Butterfield said.

Nichols had that beat by a mile -- or two.

The daughter of Lynn and Susan Nichols took 70,000 steps in a single day, walking to and from school, jogging in place while coiffing her hair and even, for awhile anyway, as she hit the books at night. And she wasn't even playing volleyball, basketball or soccer games on contest week.

One morning, according to her mom, she was jumping around so much she could barely put her socks on.

"She got (into the contest) and thought, 'I'm just going to do it. I'm going to go all the way,' " Susan Nichols said. "The amazing thing is, it was just totally from her heart. There was absolutely no incentive for her to be doing this, other than just wanting to meet the challenge."

Nichols logged more steps than any classmate, a feat that earned her a spot in the school's announcements, sore knees and a killer cold.

"She just wore herself out," Butterfield said.

But her school won an "Action Pack," or $1,500 in P.E. equipment, Butterfield said. Students in the top-stepping class will receive $10 gift certificates to a sporting goods store.

The school also is giving T-shirts to individual class winners.

"It's to help them see and realize that fitness and moving and being active can be fun," Butterfield said. "And they did have a lot of fun with it."

E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com