To increase awareness of childhood obesity and youth fitness, while raising support for United Way’s efforts to improve people’s health, Charlie Engle will run across America from San Francisco to New York… in 45 days! That’s 69.8 miles a day, which would be a new world record.
Running America, which begins on Sept. 13, 2008, in San Francisco and will end on or before Oct. 27 in New York City, follows Engle’s run across the Sahara Desert to help raise awareness and funds for water-related programs in Africa. Engle will be accompanied by ultra-marathoner Marshall Ulrich of Idaho Springs, CO.
“A growing number of United Ways across the country are focusing on the issues of childhood obesity and youth fitness with programs that help young people make positive nutritional and behavioral choices,” said Randy Punley, United Way of America’s Director of Media and Corporate Partnerships. “Charlie’s inspirational feat encourages people to become part of the LIVE UNITED movement and illustrates that everyone can make a difference.”
Recently, United Way released Goals for the Common Good: The United Way Challenge to America. The report set three bold goals for where the nation should be by 2018 in the areas of education, income and health. The goal in the area of health is to increase by one-third the percentage of healthy young people and adults. One of the indicators of this broad goal is the percentage of students who are overweight. According to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity among children has nearly doubled in the last decade. Alarmingly, more than 9 million children in the United States are either obese or overweight and studies show today’s children are not getting the necessary exercise and activity for effective weight management and good health.
