Walk to Work Day Encourages Brekky Bonus for Australians

Walk to Work 2007 - www.femail.com.au/walk-to-work-day-sydney.htm

Walk to Work Day is calling on Australian organisations to host a healthy breakfast to reward employees for leaving their car at home and walking to work on Friday 6 October 2006.

Walk to Work Day is an annual event that encourages all Australians to develop regular walking habits and aims for better health, cleaner air, less traffic and increased use of public transport.

"Each year, Walk to Work Day participants help the environment and improve their health and fitness," says Harold Scruby, chairman of the Pedestrian Council of Australia (PCA). "In 2006, we are calling on Australian businesses to do their part by rewarding 'walking class heroes' with a healthy breakfast on Walk to Work Day, Friday 6 October."

According to Professor Adrian Bauman, creator of GutBusters and Head of the University of Sydney's Epidemiology Unit, if an additional 10 per cent of Australians walked regularly, even by as little as to-and-from the bus stop each day, it would significantly increase our productivity and overall well-being. It would save more than a thousand lives every year from heart disease alone.

Mr Scruby says that walking is the first step toward personal and environmental health.

"With our current habits, Australians are predicted to be fatter than Americans by 2020. Making time to walk everyday and eating healthy food will help to prevent this prediction.

"You've got to get to work somehow, so why not walk - at least part of the way? As they say, you don't have to take exercise seriously, just regularly," Mr Scruby says.

The ninth national Walk to Work Day is on Friday, 6 October. Companies, businesses, councils and government agencies are encouraged to host Walk to Work Day Healthy Breakfasts. To find out how to organise your own Walk to Work Day Healthy Breakfast, contact Frances Dwyer/Allison Lee (02) 9519 5411 or visit www.walk.com.au.