Successful Stepping at ENDO 09 through The Hormone Foundation's Step Challenge

The Hormone Foundation’s 2^nd Annual ENDO Step Challenge once again created excitement and some friendly competition among this year’s ENDO attendees.  Three thousand attendees competed with each other to see who could walk the most steps during The Endocrine Society’s Annual Meeting, ENDO, which took place in Washington DC, June 10-13, 2009.

The Hormone Foundation’s Step Challenge is a high profile annual event held in conjunction with ENDO to promote healthy living through exercise and to raise awareness about The Hormone Foundation among ENDO attendees. The Hormone Foundation is the public education affiliate of The Endocrine Society and a leading source of hormone-related information for patients, physicians, allied health professionals and the media. To date, the Foundation has touched more than 350 million lives with important health information.

At ENDO 09, nine ENDO attendees won prizes in the Step Challenge’s daily raffles, which included gift certificates to hotels, museums, and sporting goods stores. The individual grand prize winner, Alice K. Lee, walked a total of 86,894 steps and won a $500 travel certificate to ENDO 2010.  Dr. Lee is a practicing physician at Nassau University Medical Center in New York State.

In addition to the individual competition, this year the Step Challenge held a team challenge, which included corporate supporters, exhibitors, academic institutions, trainees, and other organizations.  Eighteen teams competed during the three days of ENDO to create a sense of friendly rivalry, promote the Hormone Foundation, and challenge each other for a grand prize:

2009 Step Challenge Teams
Abbott’s Promise
ALPCO
Any Step, Is A Step in the Right Direction
Caminito Tango
Cell Signaling Technology
Clinical Affairs Core Committee
ColoradoBuffaloes
Development Committee
Genentech
Harbor UCLA BIOMED
Hoos Walking
MCV Missteps
Mendelson Lab – Past, Present, and Friends
Research Affairs Core Committee
Sinai Speedsters
Suny Downstate
Takeda Red
Univ of Washington Walking Gonads (UW Wags)

The team winner was The Endocrine Society’s Development Committee with an average of 39,991 total steps walked during ENDO, earning each team member a $25 gift certificate to be used towards any Society’s educational materials. In second place, Argentina’s Caminito Tango was hot on the Development Committee’s heels with 39,265 total average steps, and the Sinai Speedsters in third place with an impressive 37,014 total average steps.

Thank you to the following 2009 ENDO Step Challenge supporters: Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Step Challenge supporters received increased visibility at ENDO including recognition on signage throughout the Convention Center.

For more information and to learn how to get involved in the 2010 ENDO Step Challenge, contact Anna Meenan at ameenan@endo-society.org.   We look forward to seeing you at the ENDO 2010 Step Challenge in San Diego, CA.