In 2018, County Health Rankings showed that 38% of the Floyd County population claimed to be in less than good health. The Center for Disease Control states that physically inactive adults are at greater risk for premature death, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, depression, and cancers.

The Floyd County Family & Consumer Science Program established a four week, all-online walking program, “Floyd County Walking Challenge.” This program was requested and established during COVID-19. People in the county claimed they needed motivation to be physically active during this time.

The Walking Challenge program was operated through Facebook and the University of Kentucky FitBlue mobile application. The Facebook page included challenge updates and health information. The participants of the program logged steps through qualtrics of the FitBlue mobile application and the Family & Consumer Science Agent kept records of the steps walked on file. The Facebook group was updated weekly with the participant rankings with their first name and last initial. Health related articles provided by the University of Kentucky were uploaded weekly. The Family & Consumer Science Agent utilized the informational releases provided to the Agents by the University of Kentucky Educational Specialists.

Ten total individuals actively participated in the challenge and twenty-two were in the Facebook group. All together, the participants walked a total of 2,169,241 steps. They also claimed this challenge gave them motivation to walk and move more often throughout the day. Some also reported weight loss and improvements in overall health.