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Four universities to walk 200 000 km in ten weeks

12 April 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish

“May the best team win the 2019 BestMed Pedometer Challenge!” said LJ van Zyl, Pedometer Challenge ambassador.

Participants in the 2019 BestMed Pedometer Challenge will start improving their health step by step after the University of the Free State (UFS) challenged the Stellenbosch University, Central University of Technology, and North-West University (NWU) to an eight-week walking competition.

South African 400-metre hurdles record-holder and the Pedometer Challenge ambassador, LJ van Zyl, embraced the initiative as an alternative method to achieve fitness. “I am so tired of running and this is great way to stay fit,” he said during the official launch on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on 5 April 2019.

Inter-institutional fight for fitness

Last year, the UFS Division for Organisational Development and Employment Wellness in the Department of Human Resources led a UFS-only challenge that saw 60 teams of staff members log a total of 54 606 km in eight weeks. The division then challenged the NWU.

Together, the NWU and UFS walked 132 000 km. This year, the UFS is taking it one step further by challenging two more institutions.

Leading the way

“We aim to get South Africa active – starting with the UFS – by embracing fitness and health ourselves,” said Arina Engelbrecht, UFS Employee Wellness Specialist.

Participants on all fitness and activity levels will gun for a 200 000 km target over 10 weeks.

The challenge kicked off on the Bloemfontein Campus with a 3-km walk at the launch, leaving 199 997 km between the four universities for the rest of the eight-week challenge.

News Archive

UFS staff makes a difference

2010-05-04

From the left are: Ms Annemarie Ludick, Senior Officer at the UFS; Mr Gerald and Mrs Luchelle Blaauw of the Ebenhauser Intermediary School in Wepener; and Mr Philemon Bitso, Assistant Officer: Corporate Relations at the UFS.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

A group of staff members at the University of the Free State (UFS) made a donation to Mr Gerald Blaauw and his wife, Luchelle, both teachers at the Ebenhauser Intermediary School in Wepener, in reaction to an article that appeared in Volksblad’s Kontrei of 28 April 2010.

The money will be used to buy a stove and pots to prepare food for the 646 learners in this school.

When Mrs Blaauw, who has been at the school for ten years now, got involved in the school’s feeding scheme, she noticed a great need for food amongst the learners. It motivated her to start a vegetable garden. With spinach, cabbage, beetroot, beans, peas and carrots in the garden but no stove or pots to cook the vegetables, Mrs Blaauw was very happy when she learned about the donation from the UFS.

Mrs Blaauw has plans to expand the garden. “We would like to daily give the children a plate of food at 10:00 and a cup of soup again in the afternoon,” she said.

Mr Mickey Gordon, Head: Corporate Relations, Institutional Advancement and Sport at the UFS, said: “It is remarkable that a teacher will go to so much effort for the children. This school is part of our Free State community and we like to help.”

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