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On Your Mark, Get Set, Go With Pedometers!
An inexpensive way to motivate and get people to participate.

Compiled from various sources

M A N P O - K E I
The Japanese have been using electronic pedometers for more than a decade to help counteract sedentary lifestyles. The Japanese nicknamed the device “manpo-kei” which means “10,000 steps meter”. Now, lower prices in microchip technology have made the item inexpensive enough for everyone.

A Little Incentive Goes A Long Way
Walkathon and Fun Run participants usually receive an incentive, or ‘goodies’ for their participation, items such as t-shirts or water bottles. An item showing up more and more is the pedometer, a gadget for keeping track of your steps. Some models even keep track of the calories you’ve burned, the distance you’ve walked in miles, and how long you’ve been walking. Higher end models even speak the information to you. (Thank goodness it doesn’t tell your weight out loud!)

Who Thought Chips Could Be So Healthy?
The dramatic drop in microchip prices means small electronic items are more affordable than ever. Items such as pedometers have crossed the line from ‘expensive gadget’ to an affordable and useful item that encourages an active lifestyle, which has benefits both tangible and intangible for everyone.
Now pedometers are inexpensive enough to be available as a promotional item, whether they’re given away to participants, or offered as a fund-raising incentive. Pedometers can be imprinted with the name or logo of the fund-raising event to draw interest, and even encourage collectibles.

Give Out An Incentive That Gives Back
Pedometers are a proactive incentive. A pedometer is a tool for making a person aware of their physical activity, allowing them to challenge themselves, to improve themselves every day. What other incentive can say that?
Participants can receive their pedometers and other goodies at the time they turn in their collected donations. Or, some prefer to give them away at the beginning of the event.

Step Up The Donations
Pedometers also make great fund-raiser incentive items. They usually sell for $10 and up in retail stores. Professional fund-raisers know a higher value item encourages higher donations.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Not everybody can afford to give away the pedometers. Some groups have collected the pedometers at the end of an event, exchanging them for an entry into a drawing for a higher value item; others have participants exchanging them for redeemable coupons tied in to local businesses.
One kids fitness program distributes the pedometers daily, then collects them and has children write down their numbers, offering prizes to the highest scores. Some kids even ‘marched in line’ to get their numbers up!