Whether you stroll, stride or roll, NIU’s Exercise is Medicine On Campus (EIM-OC) team wants you to get moving.
Students, faculty and community members are invited to join Exercise is Medicine On Campus’s annual nationwide walking challenge on Wednesday, which NIU EIM-OC will hold at the East Lagoon. The event encourages participants to get active – by foot or wheelchair – in celebration of Exercise is Medicine Month.
“The Exercise is Medicine On-Campus Initiative is a worldwide initiative, and the idea is to promote physically active lifestyles,” said Shaine Henert, director of NIU’s kinesiology department and faculty leader at NIU EIM-OC. “The Walking Challenge is an example of that, to invite everyone in the campus community to walk and be active and compete against the other programs.”
Still in its opening year as a campus-recognized group, NIU EIM-OC is participating in the challenge for the first time.
“Our goal is to accumulate 80 miles as a group,” Henert said. “We chose 80 miles because 80 miles is approximately the distance from the NIU Rockford campus to the NIU Naperville campus. So we thought it’d be cool as a group to travel that distance.”
The institution that logs the most miles earns a monetary prize and bragging rights.
Everyone who participates at NIU’s event will be entered into drawings for prizes. The participant who logs the most miles will earn a $50 NIU Bookstore gift card, with additional prizes including coffee mugs, gift cards and more.
Participants can stop by anytime between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to move, log laps, enjoy the fall scenery and connect with others on campus. For those who can’t make it to campus, EIM-OC is offering a virtual option from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Participants can submit their logged miles here.
Parking will be available in Lot 3 for yellow and blue passes and Lot 14 for blue passes. Additional parking can be purchased through the AMP app.
In the case of inclement weather, the event will move inside the Recreation Center. Students with questions about the event or interest in future events should contact [email protected].
“I think we’ve had as many as 15 to 20 (members), primarily faculty,” Henert said. “We’d like to recruit more students, because this is for everyone.”
