Increasing Physical Activity at Tucker County High School

West Virginia is consistently showing trends of inactivity, so much so, that a recent study ranked West Virginia as the number one state in the United States. Sky rocketing health care costs and increased numbers of people becoming obese has prompted the Tucker County HSTA Club to challenge this trend and create a program of increasing physical activity in West Virginia. In attempting to change these behaviors we have decided to gear our initial efforts towards the center of our community, the school. The teachers are role models within the school and within the community. Therefore, we have decided to help change their behavior affecting students and other community members. We hope through isolating barriers and perceptions of physical activity that at least 50% of the staff of Tucker County High School will begin to increase their physical activity levels. Through the use of partners, we plan to educate and to help increase knowledge of overall health of the participants involved in the program. We hope to reduce the barriers of physical activity for those participating in the program by creating an interior walking trail and an exterior walking, running and biking trail, and to increase the awareness of the obesity epidemic affecting our county and our state. Our primary goal is to change the perceptions of physical activity in Tucker County.