VIDEO: West Des Moines Kids Meet Fitness Goal – One Step At a Time

students took a walk last fall with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad to start their leg of the “Start Somewhere Walk,” a signature program of the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative.

What if?” asked Nancy Foley, who teaches the Extended Learning Program for Westridge Elementary’s talented and gifted students.

So they kept walking.

And walking.

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And walking until they’d walked the equivalent of more than 1 million football fields.

That’s 829,250,592 steps and 59.341 miles. It’s like walking around the Earth two and one-half times.

Along the way, Nancy Foley’s students got geography and math lessons and learned about using spreadsheets and making maps.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds the nearly 700 Westridge students on the final leg of their journey Friday.