[simage=76,max,y,center,] While students mill across the quad on their way to lunch, chat or study during activity, physical education teacher Stacie O’Rear is preparing for a mile long walk with STA’s new Walking Club.

Although it is not an official STA club, anyone who wants to get off campus and walk is welcome to join the trip. O’Rear has created individual routes to show walkers as the club begins every Activity. About a mile round trip, the route takes 15- 20 minutes off campus around Wyandotte Street neighborhood for easy exercise.

‘We have a problem in this society with teen and childhood obesity,’ O’Rear said. ‘So I did research on schools [who have] already done this kind of thing, and I thought, ‘Why not give it a try?”

According the the American Medical Association, most Americans sit 39.9% of their day, and less than 50% of Americans gets the proper amount of exercise needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Inactivity ranks number two as the leading cause of preventable death in America, second only to tobacco use.

Students and teachers alike have met daily to walk and talk with peers and co-workers; the club has met Monday through Thursday during activities 1 and 2 since school started. Beginning the club this year was a way to encourage exercise at STA and allow students to enjoy the weather before winter arrives. O’Rear acknowledges the infancy of the club, but has high goals for the future.

‘My hopes would be to have a girl total 75 to 100 miles at the end of the year,’ O’Rear said.

Occasional Walking Club participant, social studies teacher Craig Whitney, states that while walking is a good way to get moving, it is also a good way to relax, enjoy the outdoors and pick up some lifestyle changes.

‘I think it’s O’Rear’s hope to create a routine habit,’ Whitney said. ‘It’s an enjoyable experience to go off campus with friends. [And with a routine] students will be more likely to do [exercise] on their own to improve their health.’

Dr. Oz of the Oprah Winfrey Show and WebMD both agree that walking helps prevent type 2 diabetes, reduces symptoms of depression, reduces the risk of breast and colon cancer and improves cognitive function in the brain.

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Math teacher Barbara Harris is a daily participant of the Walking Club and agrees that walking is the key to a better day.

‘It energizes me for the afternoon,’ Harris said. ‘Literally, I do have more energy. It feels like a brand new day after I get out from behind my desk and into the fresh air. I like it a lot.’

72,488 female nurses volunteered to help for the Nurse’s Health Study Association in 2007 by walking 3 hours a week or more to test the health results. The study concluded that every woman had reduced their individual risk of heart attack or other coronary event by more than 35%.

According to Whitney, the Walking Club is a good way to get out of campus limits, relax and have a good time while helping yourself. He also encourages others to try out the new activity pasttime.

‘If [the students] need to think about it as 20 minutes off campus and away from school, that’s fine,’ Whitney said. ‘[But] it’s an enjoyable experience and you’re really benefiting yourself.’