According to the 2021 County Health Rankings for Kentucky, 41% of Owen County adults reported no or limited physical activity.  This percentage of physical inactivity brought the idea to promote physical activity through offering a health challenge in the summer of 2022.  The 2022 Owen County Summer Steps Challenge,  county-wide, was offered through the collaboration of the Owen County Cooperative Extension Service and the Three Rivers District Health Department.  This five week health challenge was promoted online, in newsletters, handouts at a local festival, flyers around the county, and more.  

FitBlue, a University of Kentucky application for a mobile device was offered for those with Fitbit devices to automatically sync their physical activity.  Contact was made by the Owen County Family & Consumer Sciences Agent with the University of Kentucky to pull regular reports to see progress of participants. A paper log was also available for those wishing to track of their steps on paper. For all participants, youth and adults, an Assumption of Risk, Release, and Waiver was required to participate.  After the five weeks, the total number of steps were calculated for each participant.  There were two prizes provided by the Health Department, which were a youth Fitbit as well as an adult Fitbit.  A youth winner and an adult winner were decided by the committee formed to review the steps logs.  A survey was mailed to each participant to determine to effectiveness of the challenge and 85% of the participants felt this challenge increased their physical activity.  60% of the participants also expressed interest in continuing their physical activity after the challenge was concluded.  Participants also expressed interest in a future health challenge.   We also discovered that there were at least 4 families that made this a family activity including their children to increase their physical activity as well.