LIVING SPORT’s Sportivate funds young people in Cambridgeshire to walk around the World

June 23, 2012 - PRLog -- Group members will wear a sophisticated activity monitor on their arm, around their neck, on their ankle or attached to their clothing to measure how much activity they each do during the day.  The information is uploaded via a computer or entered into a Smartphone to their private on-line account which shows them how many steps they have taken, miles they have walked and calories they have burned.  The site can also be used to track their weight and body composition and can record their food and drink intake if they want to.  All of this information stays private and can only be seen by the individual.

By joining the Walk-around-the-World on-line group within Activ8rlives.com, the individual steps from each of the “walkers” are anonymously added together and the software plots their combined progress along a route displayed in Google Earth maps.  Each user can zoom into these maps at street level to explore every city the group walks through.  
The first leg of their “Virtual World Tour” will take them through Europe, Iran, Pakistan, India, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and into Singapore (9,583 km).  From there they will walk through Indonesia, hop across to East Timor before walking across Australia. The third stage includes a dramatic journey island hoping across the Pacific before heading north through the Americas and back to the UK via Canada.  Lets hope they all take a good pair of shoes with them.

A local company Aseptika based in Huntingdon has developed the website and a set of gadgets which feed information to it.  Their aim is to empower groups of people of any age to help each other take more exercise, make better food choices and stay healthy.  Already one group of 17 Huntingdon residents have embarked on this epic journey as a fun way of keeping healthy and staying well.

LIVING SPORT via Sport England’s Sportivate initiative is providing £35 funding each for 25 people who are between 14-25 towards the purchase of the Company’s activity monitor (the Buddy step counter) and its colourful accessories.  The contribution from each participant will be just £4.95.  

Sportivate is a £32 million Lottery programme that gives 14-25 year olds access to courses in a range of sports.  The programme is aimed at those who are not currently choosing to take part in sport in their own time.  A Key objective of Sportivate is that they support the participants to continue playing sport and being active once each six week course has finished.  The Activ8rlives.com pilot is unusual in that the 25 participants may never meet each other, but will support and motivate each other on-line via the private and secure social network part of the Activ8rlives.com site.  Each group member of the “expedition” will use the Buddy step counter to discover new ways of being active in their everyday lives and measure how far they walk each day.  The scheme will last for as long as it takes to complete the World Tour – probably about 12 months.

So if you see some determined looking young people striding through Huntingdon, give them some encouragement and a wave – they may be walking across a desert, swimming an ocean or navigating through a dense rainforest.

The scheme is open to everyone irrespective of ability or gender but you must be aged 14-25 and live in Cambridgeshire.  For details call 01480 352 821, email us at walkaroundtheworld@activ8rlives.com or register on activ8rlives.com and join the “Walk around the World” group (search for “Walk around the World” on the Groups Page once you have registered).  

The use of the Activ8rlives.com site is free and is subscription-free for life.  No purchase is required to use the site.  The Company sells its Buddy step counter and Body Analyser via its website www.activ8rlives.com