For those of you in DC and you've been puzzled at seeing representatives, senators, their aides and interns opting to take stairs instead of elevators while checking pedometers, this Times article provides the explanation:
They are taking part in the WalkingWorks Capitol Hill Challenge, a six-week pedometer contest sponsored by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, where House and Senate offices compete to rack up miles. To account for the different sized offices in Congress, the challenge has two categories: overall miles, and average miles per walker. It ends June 25, and the winning teams will have donations to charity made in their name.[...]
There is Kyle Oliver, 30, the legislative director for Representative Ralph M. Hall, 85, a Republican from Texas whose office is in the top 10 for both contest categories, who no longer views a quick errand as a nuisance, but sees it as “Oh, that’s 10 minutes I can walk.”
There are the aides from Mr. Voinovich’s office who now get excited when their interns give tours because, according to their calculations, it is more than 2,000 steps each time they show constituents around the Capitol.
Read more here.