What to do and when to do it – Preparation checklist
At least eight weeks before you would like to hold a walkathon, raise the idea with work mates, HR and management. Get people involved and interested. Seek approval and support from management. Often, if the idea is circulated from management, people will be more inclined to participate if management is shown to be supporting the initiative.
Six weeks before the walkathon, set a start and finish date. Set a date for the healthy lunch, morning tea, or afternoon tea celebration.
Six weeks before the start of the walkathon, purchase and/or arrange sponsorship of the pedometers, or organise where to hire these from.
Six weeks before your celebration event, select a venue for your celebration event (onsite or book a venue).
Five weeks before the start of the walkathon, set a virtual destination or ask staff to nominate a destination.
Five weeks before the start of the walkathon, arrange healthy prizes. Can management donate prizes? Can local physical activity or healthy food businesses donate prizes?
Five weeks before the event, invite a guest speaker to the celebration (see invite a special guest – Letter template (RTF 7 KB)).
Four weeks before the walkathon, make a poster about the event and send out fliers (see staff flyer template (RTF 10 KB)) to everyone at work inviting them to participate.
Four weeks before the start of the walkathon, make a poster identifying the map of your destination.
Three weeks before the start of the walkathon, organise teams.
Three weeks before the celebration event, arrange a healthy lunch, morning tea, or afternoon tea celebration, either with a BBQ, items brought in from home or organised through your cafe or local caterer.
One weeks before the celebration event, brief the guest speaker on what you have achieved and why you arranged the Workplace Walkathon. You should also give them a quick brief on the day of the event to make sure they are comfortable with what they are doing.
One weeks before the start of the walkathon, send a media release to your local paper/media (see media release template (RTF 20 KB)). With the approval of management, invite the local paper around to take a picture of the teams during the competition. Invite the local paper to attend the celebration.
One weeks before your celebration event, draw up a running sheet (see running sheet template (RTF 26 KB)) for your special day with timings and give a copy to organisers and guests to make sure it runs smoothly.