If Oxford’s elementary students had a dollar for every step they walked, they’d all be millionaires.
Seven hundred third and fourth-graders at Oxford, Lakeville, Leonard and Clear Lake elementaries walked a combined 53,727,288 steps from March 5-30 as part of Oakland County’s ‘Count Your Steps? program.
Launched in 2004 by county Executive L. Brooks Patterson, the fun program encourages kids to walk more by giving them free pedometers, a device that tracks the number of steps an individual takes.
Count Your Steps is designed to increase the physical activity levels of young kids and combat the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.
As extra incentive, school districts, schools, classrooms and individual students all compete to see who can walk the most steps. Among the 27 school districts that participated in this year’s program, Oxford’s four elementary schools placed 6th overall.
Within the district, Clear Lake took the most steps with a total of 27,623,180.
‘These kids were busy walking,? said Clear Lake Principal Sue Hannant.
Teachers primed student interest in the program by walking with them around the school grounds. ‘I think that probably motivated the kids to really get moving with it,? Hannant said.
Oxford Elementary walked 9,205,949 steps, Lakeville 8,012,267 steps and Leonard 7,083,726 steps.