In mid-February 2016, my travels took me to nearby Anaheim to speak at the annual meeting of the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine & Science. I spoke as part of a session on the Every Body Walk! Campaign, along with my good friends Jackie Epping from the CDC and Thomas Rigler, who is the producer for the EBW campaign and all its various components. Obviously this campaign is near and dear to my heart, having been started back in 2011by our then Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO George Halvorson.

Since that time, EBW has grown beyond what anyone imagined and galvanized a host of organizations around promoting the power of walking to improve health. This led to US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently issuing a long awaited Call to Action to promote Walking and Walkable communities. But despite having come this far, there is still much work to be done. With the backing of ACSM and the CDC, our session focused on how Every Body Walk can work with the many organizations that make up the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine & Science. I think they are the perfect partner to help move walking and the Every Body Walk campaign to yet another level of impact.

As part of this session, I particularly enjoyed hearing and seeing how Thomas Rigler has so skillfully shaped the messages of this campaign thru this web site, social media and the various video content he has created. Not to mention the fabulous City Walk TV show that highlights the best places to walk around the country and is shown on public television. I am excited to see where this campaign will go next and have not doubt that the multimedia genius of Rigler Creative will take it to new heights!

I hope you will continue to follow us on this journey.

Keep walking my friends!

Bob

Photo caption: Joint Commission meeting with Jackie Epping, Thomas Rigler and Jim Whitehead