Dr. Oz's HealthCorps and

First Lady of New York

Michelle Paige-Paterson

Announce

"Healthy Steps to Albany"

to Raise Awareness of the

Childhood Obesity Epidemic

On March 18, HealthCorps kicked off the first annual "Healthy Steps to Albany" initiative with a press conference held in conjunction with eleven Harlem middle schools. Health Coordinators and a group of students from the High School for Law and Public Service at George Washington Campus lent their support to inaugurate the contest. The press conference was held at The City College of New York at The Great Hall in Shepherd Hall.

Sporting pedometers, students in 29 HealthCorps-affiliated high schools in New York City will compete in a four-week virtual race to attain the most steps, in line with Dr. Oz's recommendation to walk 10,000 steps a day. The Mets have invited the winners from each school to the May 28th game at Shea Stadium. Students in the HealthCorps program outside of New York City will participate in their own walking contests for different prizes simultaneously.

By launching "Healthy Steps to Albany" HealthCorps and New York's First Lady are showing kids and teens how simple, measureable changes to a lifestyle regimen can have a positive impact on their health and well being.

"HealthCorps is inspired by Michelle Paige-Patterson's long term commitment to solid solutions to provide preventive health for our youth," said Michelle Bouchard, Executive Director of HealthCorps. "Dr. Oz and HealthCorps support the First Lady's devotion to getting all kids physically and mentally fit. We hope this is the first of many future collaborative events."

The initiative's many partners include National Urban Technology Center, the Metro-Manhattan Chapter of the Links, Inc., New York City Public School District #5, Bankstreet College, The City University of New York, Pfizer, AIG, HIP/GHI, Verizon, the New York Mets, Black Entertainment Television (BET), Green Magazine, Wachovia Bank, and John Starks Zipway International, Inc.

Abraham Lincoln High School Congratulations to Jameel Kaleem who walked the farthest.	The Academy of the New Church Congratulations to Dustin Synnestvedt who went way beyond the 170,000 step goal and walked 213,307 steps. He will win tickets to a Phillies game for his efforts. The students at Academy of the New Church walked a combined 1,802,182 steps during the contest.
Adlai E. Stevenson High School	Art and Design High School Congratulations to Adelo Rodriguez who walked 432,178 steps.
Bridgehampton High School	Cathedral High School Congratulations to Sana Mughal, who walked the farthest!
Cliffside Park High School	Fordham High School for the Arts
Franklin K. Lane High School Congratulations to Joseph Lozada who walked 708,299 steps in four weeks. Coordinator Lauren Abramowitz's sixth period team collectively walked 5,386,470 steps. About 150 students, security guards, and deans are participated in the contest.	Herbert Lehman High School Congratulations to Charles Thomas who walked the farthest.
The High School for Arts & Business Congratulations to Michael Cohen who walked the farthest.	High School for Enterprise, Business, and Technology Congratulations to Nnamdi Udokwu who walked the farthest, and to Marques Jenkins who finised a strong and healthy second.
High School for Health Careers and Sciences Congratulations to Pamela Tejeda who walked the farthest.	High School for International Business and Finance Tie! Congratulations to both Jorge Mirabal and Michael Suarez who walked the same distance and outwalked all the other students.
High School for Law and Public Service Congratulations to Christian Perdomo who walked the fartest.	High School for Media and Communications Congratulations to Ricardo Garcia who walked the farthest.
Hillcrest High School Congratulations to Christina Morris who walked 520,407 steps to finish first out of 154 participants.	Humanities Preparatory Academy Congratulations to Greg Tsamas who walked the farthest.
John Adams High School	John F. Kennedy High School
Kingsborough Early College School 89 students walked 1,481,949 steps over the course of 31 days! Congratulations to Robert Keco who came in first with 940,378 steps! He will be going to a New York Mets game. 16 other winners who got more than 310,000 steps (10,000 everyday of the contest). They are, in order of most to least steps: Antoinette Claps Kseniya Lapikhova* Daniel Kotlyarsky Kenton Hau Rida Ali* Shanelle Hamilton Kennedy Dowd* Alina Barylnikova Caitlin Berrios* Alena Kats Cacharel Howell* Diana Kapkayeva Carrie Allen Laraib Afzal Andrenasia Cherry* The winners enjoyed their certificates, handballs, HealthCorps water bottles and foam footballs! *Helped with the contest. These individuals received Sponge Bob Mechanical Pencils and certificates of appreciation. Other helpers were: Carolina Stankowska Sapphire Balkum Brianna Villafane Etalasha Iverson	Loius D. Brandeis High School Congratulations to Patricia Santos who walked the farthest.
Lower East Side Preparatory High School Congratulations to Zi Han Yuan who walked 1,235,187 steps. This active student has 2 periods of gym each day, afterschool yoga class, and is a member of the bowling team. He likes to spends his free time playing sports. Over one month, the following students all walked more than 250,000 steps: 2 Li, Wei 3 Li, Ting Mai 4 Su, Hong Jie 5 Lin, Wei 6 Shen, Yu Hai 7 Wong, Kent 8 Zhu, Xiao Dan 9 Cui, Ying Wu 10 Wu, Yan Li 11 Rivera, Edith 12 Zhang, JinRu 13 Mai, Shu Yu 14 Ling, Naiyz 15 Mei Qun, Liu	Lower Moreland High School About 1/8th of the students are participating in the "Steps to the Shore" contest. The first student to walk the 170,000 steps from the school to the New Jersey shore will win tickets to a Phillies game. Lower Moreland is competing against The Academy of New Church to win the Golden Sneaker Award for the highest total number of steps amongst all participating students. For more information, visit the Lower Moreland Steps to the Shore website.
Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics High School Congratulations to Zalika May who walked the farthest. Runner-ups were: Osbelkis Perez, Katrina Bryce, and Stevon Garcia. All participants and their guests, gathered for a healthy lunch. The runner-ups received iPods. Zalika received an iPod and two tickets to see the Mets.	New Explorers High School for Film and Humanities Congratulations to Dorothy Semprit, class of 2008 who walked 206.7 miles!
New Utrecht High School	North Bergen High School
Palm Beach Gardens High School	Progress High School for Professional Careers Stacy Zea walked the farthest and Alexis Santiago was close behind.
Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy (M.S./H.S. 141) Congratulations to: Top- Dylan Prill 2nd- Karina Diaz 3rd- Victor Dominguez 4th- Chai-wan Cheng 5th- Megan Guzman	Samuel J. Tilden High School Congratulations to Andez Greene who walked the farthest. Nathanaelle Remy was the runner-up.
South Shore High School Congratulations to Victor Morales who was the victor in the contest to walk the farthest. To the victor goes the spoils in the form of Mets tickets. Tiffany Silva came in second-place and won a gift certificate to Modell's Sporting Goods.	Syosset High School
Tottenville High School	University Heights High School Congratulations to Peter Bravato for walking the farthest.