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Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price accepted the victor’s trophy Tuesday for the city’s win over Des Moines, Iowa, in FitWorth’s 10-Week Health Challenge, which ended April 4.

Doug Reichardt of Iowa’s Healthy State Initiative presented the trophy during the City Council meeting, acknowledging Fort Worth’s designation as "Wellness Capital." 

"This win confirms something we already knew – Fort Worth is a healthy city that is passionate about promoting active lifestyles," Mayor Price said. "If our citizens are healthy, our city will thrive. If our workforce is healthy, business will succeed."

Councilmember Dennis Shingleton also presented the Mayor’s Trophy to UNT Health Science Center, the Fort Worth organization with the most tracked minutes of activity among local corporations competing in the challenge. 

UNTHSC fielded 55 teams for a total of 382 participants. Their total weight lost was 292 pounds, and their total recorded minutes of activity was 830,077.

Jean Tips, Vice President of Communications and Marketing, along with "Team Crunchers," the team logging the most activity of the 55 teams, accepted the trophy.

Although Iowa had the most active participants, the Health Challenge victor was judged on the most average daily activity per participant. Fort Worth led with 2,070 participants, clocking 1,603 minutes of activity per participant. Iowa’s 10,908 participants logged 1,512 minutes of activity per participant. 

Fort Worth also beat Iowa on average pounds lost per person. Fort Worth’s participants lost a total of 7,375 pounds, for an average of 3.5 pounds per participant. Iowa’s participants lost a total of 4,999 pounds, for an average of .45 pounds per participant.

The FitWorth challenge was made possible by numerous community partners, including Think Finance, Fort Worth Bike Share, Calamity Gym, Komen 5K, Luke’s Locker, Albertson’s, Downtown Fort Worth Inc., Sundance Square and all area Chambers of Commerce.

FitWorth is a family-focused initiative of Mayor Betsy Price and the Fort Worth City Council, launched in September 2012 to address the growing trend of childhood obesity in the city.

Advisory Board members include representatives from Aetna, Albertson’s, Cook Children’s Healthcare Network, Cowtown Marathon, Fort Worth ISD, Fort Worth City Council, Live Healthy America, Oncor, Texas Health Resources and UNTHSC. Initial funding was provided by Oncor. 

For more information, visit www.fwtexas.org.

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