Marquette leads Big Green Gym Challenge

Marquette is leading the way in a competition with two other Michigan communities for public health grant money.

Marquette is part of the Michigan Big Green Gym Challenge.

The city is competing with Kalamazoo and with Grand Traverse County to see who gets the most physical activity.

The winner receives $10,000 in grant money from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

“We’ve been leading pretty steadily the last week,” Marquette Assistant Director of Community Services Jon Swenson said. “There’s times that Traverse City sneaks up on us, though. They’ve been our fiercest competitor. Some mornings, it’s pretty close, so we definitely need everyone’s help.”

The Marquette Senior Center offered a free health check this afternoon as part of the challenge.

If you’d like to sign up for the challenge and help the city’s effort, here’s how:

— Log on to www.walkingworks.com and click “SIGN UP”.

— For your plan, select “Michigan Blue Cross and Blue Shield”.

— For your group, select “2013 MI Big Green Gym – Blues Community Challenge”.

— Select “Team Marquette” under the team list.

— Log your daily activity on the website through June 22nd.

The winning community will be the one with the largest total number of miles logged.