Stepping Up for Health at Salem Lutheran School in Affton

Staff at Salem Lutheran School in Affton were on a mission to good health.

Sixteen staff members entered a 6-week competition to walk 6 million steps. Two teams of staff members are wearing pedometers and calculating their weekly steps. At the end of each week, steps are tallied and progress is reported.

What was in it besides bragging rights? Many of the staff members are participating in Concordia Health Plan's "Be Well, Serve Well" program. Points were earned for regular exercise, and those points, along with others, turn into cash at the end of the year. Our congregation gets matching dollars for every dollar the staff members earn, too. In our own contest, each winning team member will earn an additional $10.

No matter which team won that prize, everyone will come out ahead with a healthier lifestyle. The staff continued past the 6 weeks and were up to more than 7 million steps by the end of the school year.

According to First Grade teacher and team captain, Carrie Hartwig, "The walking program was an excellent activity all around. Not only were we working as a team toward a goal, but it gave us a reason to get up and move around as we watched our students at recess. As a result, we got to know each other a little better - regardless of what team we were on! An unintended benefit of the program was that we were role models to our students in a new way. When they saw us being active it encouraged them to be active during their recess time as well."

Salem Lutheran School is located at 5025 Lakewood Rd. in Affton and serves 185 students in pre-school through eighth grade. For enrollment information, visit www.slcas.org.

Pictured: Carrie Hatwig, team captain and first grade teacher; Stephanie Miller, team captain and kindergarten teacher; and Kathy Brown, fourth grade teacher.