The long, repetitive days of May, June and July may have plodded along even slower than usual this summer, but the 59 College of Charleston staff and faculty members who participated in the Summer 2020 AEX Step Challenge kept one another motivated every step of the way โ all 41,184,487 of them!
Together, the CofC Steppers walked a total of 20,592 miles, which is equivalent to walking from Charleston to Australia and back, averaging 226 miles โ or, from Charleston to Savannah and back โ every day between May 4 and Aug. 2.
No matter how you break it down, it all adds up to something to celebrate! And thatโs just what the CofC Steppers did at the Summer 2020 AEX Step Challenge Virtual Awards Ceremony last week.
โI know it’s been a challenging summer, but you all really stepped it up this summer,โ Michelle Futrell โ92ย said during the celebration over Zoom. Futrell, the director of the Center for Academic Performance and Persistence and senior instructor of nutrition in the Department of Health and Human Performance, developed the Academic Experience (AEX) Step Challenge in the fall of 2016 as a healthy, fun, motivational activity for her colleagues within the Office for the Academic Experience.
RELATED: Read more about the AEX Step Challenge.
Many CofC Steppers were acknowledged at the celebration, including the 16 steppers who each took more than a million steps during the challenge. It was, however, Debye Alderman โ executive director of finance and administration in the Division of Institutional Advancement โ who took first place in the challenge with a total of 1,551,535ย steps and 131 points from the weekly Summer Substitution Challenges (e.g., substituting salad plates for dinner plates, eating a meatless meal for lunch and/or dinner, etc.).
Congratulations to all the CofC Steppers who went the distance this summer! Want to step it up this academic year? Stay tuned for details about the fifth annual AEX Step Challenge!
