Champaign- Sounds like New Years Eve, Time for a Fitness Resolution

Health and Fitness Tour Calls Attention for Our Need to Shape Up

6:00 a.m. CST – It was not New Years but we were in Champaign, IL. We left some thank you cards and we spoke with people about the ‘Big Push’ and how we were trying to bring attention to helping America get fit by using education as a tool along with motivation and inspiration. We also spoke to them about doing health and fitness summits at each mayor’s office with the council members and community leaders from local hospitals, rehab centers, YMCA, Fitness Clubs , school boards and local business owners to name a few.

9:30 a.m. CST – We met with Mayor Gerald Schweighart from Champaign.  He presented us with a proclamation from the City of Champaign to thank us for make Champaign a healthier community and I presented the mayor with a plaque on behalf of the Kevin Saunders’ Health and Fitness Tour of America to help make their community more fit. The City also declared it “Kevin Saunders Day”.  I told Mayor Schweighart what an honor it was to be in Champaign, IL and what an incredible city it is.  I also spoke with Mayor Schweighart and the city council about how particularly impressed I was by the Olympic Park Memorial at Parkland College and how to help get the city of Champaign more involved in making it a healthier community.  The memorial stands as a symbol of how each athlete worked past their personal obstacles to reach higher levels and pursue their dreams.  This makes a very symbolic gesture of the purpose of our tour because now we are pursuing health and fitness for all Americans, one community at a time.  We are currently going through a series of plateaus as I wheel across America with this message of health and fitness to provide the resources and tools for all citizens especially our nation’s youth, parents and teachers in our schools.  I mentioned how I wanted to challenge Champaign, IL to be part of the campaign and start assessing their students and parents so that they can compete nationwide with other kids and adults. We have thought about the possibility of assessing some of the workforce. It is our goal to have all cities and schools have a standardized assessment on the knowledge of fitness and nutrition.

Proclamation from Champaign, IL

10:00 a.m. CST – We immediately left and picked up where Illinois State Trooper David Tendrix had escorted us the day before.  Monticello, IL was the next town we came to.  There I met with Mayor Bill Mitze and presented him with a plaque from the Kevin Saunders’ ‘Big Push’ tour of America. Officer Sergeant Mike Morstattwer led us out of Monticello towards Cisco, IL.

Kevin gaining ground on the big truck in IL

The local newspaper, Piatt County Journal-Republican, took some pictures of me today.  This paper is distributed weekly on Wednesdays. The media plays a critical role in this tour. They help me get the message out about what we are doing to the rest of the community or state.

I pushed on 7 miles west on Highway 48 to Cisco, IL.  In Cisco, we met a couple of extremely helpful people: Roger Jebe and Lloyd Turner.  Lloyd worked at a body shop and raced motorcycles.  He helped us put on some slow-moving vehicle signs and a safety light on top of our trailer. Our slow moving sign was too low and made it hard to see even with our emergency lights on the back of the trailer we are on. They are small and hard to see in the day light.  It was very important for us to get these signs put up.  Lloyd told us that when he came up behind us on his motorbike the he wasn’t sure what he was seeing and that he couldn’t tell how fast we were going.  Because he owned a body shop and raced bikes, he thought that it was imperative that we put the slow-moving vehicle signs up high and he helped us rivet the light onto the trailer so we could for sure be seen.  We owe him a great deal of gratitude and thanks for all of his help.  The people in the Midwest have really been good to us.  It’s always great to run into friendly people who are willing to help.

You can see all the great work Llyod Turner done to make the trailor visible

We also explained what the ‘Big Push’ was about and that what we were doing was to prepare for the “Fitness 4 All 50 State Tour”. We wanted to get the kinks out of our school presentation which are designed to help educate, motivate, and inspire our nation’s youth to become self-motivated to start making healthy choices. We wanted them to understand why getting involved in fitness activities and choosing healthy balanced meals and snacks to eat is so important and how it will benefit them. By presenting a Health and Fitness summit to the city leaders and city council, it will help them see the overall picture more clearly so they would want to help parents, teachers, students and community members make proper fitness and nutrition a priority and leave them with the tools to do so. It is already a proven fact that the more often youth and people of all ages that get involved in fitness activities at least 3 to 4 times a week along with making healthy nutritional choices for the meals or snacks that eat are more alert, they have a decrease in absents at work or school and more productive. Once people have a better understanding of what we are doing, the more interested the people are, they more likely to get involved. Thanks again Lloyd Turner of Cisco, IL, we greatly appreciate you and all your help!

Kevin and Roger at Cerro Gordo

 I met Roger Jebe when he cycled up and met us in Cisco.  He wanted to know if he could ride along.  I told him that we’d love to have him with us.  When I first saw him, I thought he was probably in his 40s, if not late 30s.  He was in great physical shape (great muscle tone and very lean) and he had a great bicycle and gears too.  It was only after wheeling the first ten miles with us that he told me he was 60 years-old. What a shock! He said he had gotten into bicycling in 1969 and never quit.  Isn’t that a great statement for health and fitness when it has the potential to take over 20 years off a person’s appearance?

Kevin and Roger push up a big hill in Cisco,IL

After we got into Decatur, IL, we went over Lake Decatur.  We noticed that there were some people out being active on jet skis on the lake.  I thought to myself how great it was that people were getting out and enjoying the beautiful day.  It is important that people be physically active.  It doesn’t matter what activity they use, as long as they are active. As we always say an object in motion tends to stay in motion. This way you keep up and can enjoy the fun things in life.

Kevin updating the blog at the end of the day in IL

6:00 p.m. CST – We got a little break along the way when we met Mike Taylor from WAND TV ABC in Decatur, IL.  He interviewed me and I told him that I was pushing across America to show America, one community at a time, how proper nutrition and fitness can have a positive impact on one’s lifestyle.  I told him that we were a non-profit organization and that we welcomed any individual or organization who would like to help support us in our efforts to bring the resources and tools to help Americans of all get fit.  Immediately after the interview, I got through the city and turned onto Highway 48.  I pushed 11 miles into Blue Mound, IL.  Here we finished the push for the day around 7:30 p.m.  We drove to the Baymont Inn and Suites, one of our sponsors, in Litchfield.  Here I met the hotel owners, Jane Douherty and Nancy Hyam, who are sisters.  I gave them each a copy of my book and took a picture with them.  After we finished downloading pictures, editing them and updating our blog, we needed our rest. Until tomorrow, another day of the ‘Big Push’ across America. Before we knew it, it was midnight and time to rest for the next day. We have to get in bed by at least midnight because tomorrow would be another ‘Big Push’ with kids to educate and inspire mayors, community leaders, youth and the American people.

Kevin with hotel Baymont Inn & Suites owners Jane Douherty and Nancy Hyem