Workplace walking winner

Kasia Smith from North Ayrshire Council is our 2020 Step Count Champion of the Year.

Kasia Smith Volunteer Award Winner, Step Count Champion

Regeneration Officer Kasia encouraged her work colleagues to look after their health and wellbeing by taking part in walk bingo, taking pictures of spring flowers or local heritage, or trying a new walking route.

She motivated her team of five colleagues to reach their overall targets of 30,000 steps a day in our national springtime Step Count Challenge. Kasia lead the way in finding interesting routes and catering to her team’s physical and mental needs each day.

Kasia said:

My workplace participates in Step Count Challenges, which are organised by Path for All’s Active Travel team. I'm an active person and joining the challenge with a group of friends from work seemed a good way to boost my physical activity in good company with a bit of healthy workplace competition.

 

I've always believed that little steps add up and make a difference.  I would always choose the stairs over the lift or walking to talk to a colleague instead of a phone call.

Since this challenge was happening during the lockdown and my team nominated me as captain, a new motivational approach was needed.

To make it more interesting and to break the walks down into smaller distances, I would encourage my team to take part in walk bingo, take pictures of spring flowers or local heritage, or to try a new walking route.

It was a total surprise to win this award as my walking buddies kept my nomination a secret. It was amazing to win a workplace challenge as a team, but I never expected to win individually as well! I'm humbled, especially when hearing how they described how I managed to motivate them throughout the challenge, even more so, that we couldn't even walk together like we used to do before the Coronavirus pandemic stopped that.

Kasia's workplace supported participation in Step Count Challenge with funding from our Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme. Find out more about our Step Count Challenge on our website

Kasia was one of 13 winners at the 11th Paths for All Volunteer Awards. You can see the other winners here.