WalkBoston named Finalist in International Competition!

WE NEED YOUR HELP! WalkBoston has been named one of ten finalists in the "Global Competition for Innovative Health Nudges" which looks for small, innovative pushes that help people make better health choices for themselves and others.

WalkBoston's "Timed Walking Map" project is one of ten finalists among 281 entries from around the world. Now, we need your participation in the vote so that WalkBoston can become one of three winners who will receive $5,000 toward our work. This is a one-vote-per-person system, not one where people vote every day for a month, so it should just take a few minutes to register and vote for three of the ten finalists. To vote, go to http://www.changemakers.net/designingforbetterhealth before 6PM on Friday, May 28. Click on Vote Now, and then register and vote.

WalkBoston became a finalist because our low-cost, easy-to-read maps help people see their neighborhoods, towns and cities on a walking scale, which encourages them to choose walking over driving some of the time. Our inclusion among the finalists is a great honor and an opportunity to spread the word about our walking maps and our advocacy that makes walking easier, safer and more fun.

We hope that you will share this information with your friends and coworkers to spread the word, encourage everyone to vote, and learn more about all of the creative and effective health nudges among the ten finalists. Winners will be announced June 1, and we'll let you know how we do!

Thank you for your support of these innovative maps (and other pioneering projects we work on)! Now - please vote, and then go outside and take a walk!

(Click on map below to download a pdf of a timed walking map from our web page.)

WalkBoston/RunBoston fundraising event!

(I apologize for the incompatible oranges for those of you looking at this post on the WalkBoston blog page.)

RunBoston!

I'm just back from a wonderful vacation, during which I visited one of the least pedestrian-friendly cities I've ever seen (Las Vegas, NV) and one of the most pedestrian-friendly (Black Rock City, NV, aka the Burning Man arts festival). While I was away, lots of things happened here at WalkBoston, and today, I'm excited to announce one of them:

The Boston Athletic Association has chosen WalkBoston for one of its highly sought positions as an Official Boston Marathon Charity. As an official charity, we have been donated bib numbers to form RunBoston, a 2009 marathon team to help us raise much needed funds for our growing roster of programs and advocacy.

For those of you who don't keep track of the marathon circuit, this is a big deal because the Boston marathon is highly competitive. To run with a bib number, you have to either qualify by running another marathon in a qualifying time or you join a team like this one and raise money for a charity in the process of your training. For us here at WalkBoston, the fit between us and the marathon seemed obvious, and we're excited to link up with it!

For more information, check out the Boston Marathon's charity page.