Appendix 10A
Worksite Meeting Follow-up Letter
January 31, 2001
Ms. XXX XXXXX
Wellness Coordinator
Ohio Valley Medical Center
XXX Eoff St.
Wheeling, WV 26003
Dear Ms. XXXXX,
We are planning a health-promotion campaign in Wheeling for April 17, 2001 to June 9, 2001. I write to invite you to join the campaign to help promote the health of the community through health programs for your employees.
The West Virginia University Department of Community Medicine and the Wheeling-Ohio County Public Health Department sponsors this campaign. This research will, we hope, prove a model for physical activity not just for West Virginia and the United States but for the world. This is an important challenge and your support of this project will go a long way towards helping us to achieve this goal.
The Surgeon General has stated that physical inactivity is a serious nationwide problem. It poses a public health challenge for reducing the national burden of unnecessary illness and premature death. More than 60% of Americans are not getting enough physical activity to obtain health benefits. Twenty-five percent of adults report no physical activity in their leisure time. With these statistics in mind it is easy to see that employee physical activity programs save employees and employers money.
WHEELING WALKS is an 8-week media-based community walking campaign. In West Virginia, 68 percent of the adult population reported little or no physical activity in 1998 and ranked third worst among the 50 states for having no leisure-time physical exercise at all. To improve heart, brain, and other body functions at all ages, current public health guidelines recommend moderate physical activity (30 minutes or more) on almost every day. Successfully communicating this information to communities in ways that actually prompt individuals to put on their walking shoes and Walk (the easiest and most popular form of physical exercise) remains underdeveloped. An increasing number of studies document the cost-effectiveness of media-based community campaigns in changing physical activity knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behavior.
As you and your employees become active participants in this program please feel free to call upon WHEELING WALKS to help with any aspect of your program. We look forward to working and walking with you.
WHEELING WALKS thanks you for your interest and willingness to participate in this worthwhile campaign. So Let Your Employees Know You Enthusiastically Support This Very Important Project! Encourage Your Employee To:
- Walk – 30 minutes a day for overall good health
- Walk – with yourself, friends, the kids, the whole family
- Walk – all around Wheeling
- Walk – to help quit smoking
- Walk – to reduce risk of heart disease/cancer
- Walk - for a firm body and a keen mind
- Walk – because it’s fun and cool!
We look forward to working with your organization to promote the health of Wheeling residents. Your involvement will help ensure the campaign’s success.
Sincerely,
Deborah XXXXXXX
Campaign Facilitator
Enclosures
Appendix 10B
WORKSITE WALKING PACKET
Worksite Packet
A 40 page packet of informational materials for planning and conducting a Worksite Walking program is available in a separate file. Click here to view the Worksite Walking packet.