¡@¡@In RT Mart¡¦s file records of public welfare, we found that RT Mart helped Ms. Cheng Chi promote the activity of ¡§Million Walkers¡¨ by making use of their own funds, labor, advertisements, and DM. With the help of spokesperson of RT Mart, Ms. Mo-cheng He, we got into contact with Director Ching-chian Lian and Ms. Cheng Chi and interviewed them in Hope Foundation to understand how RT Mart helped them in ¡§walking 100,000 steps a day for the health of Taiwan.¡¨

The Leaping Antelope ¡V Cheng Chi

¡@¡@Ms. Cheng Chi was born in Hsinchu, Taiwan in a poor family. Her talent in sports and her toughness cultivated her strong volition. In 1963, she was sent to study abroad by Ministry of Education as a sports player, and she studied in the United States at Cal Poly Pomona in Pomona, California where she received most of her athletic training. In ten year, she shines as a talent athlete.

¡@¡@In year 1969 and 1970, she broke six world female records and nine world records in high jump, sprint, hurdle, long jump, and pentathlon. The newspaper in Germany called her ¡§Leaping Antelope¡¨ and the Greece called her ¡§Yellow lightning.¡¨

¡@¡@In 1977, Ms Cheng Chi turned back to Taiwan and started her another form of career in sports. She had been the chief of Taiwan Track and Field Association for twelve years and worked as a member of Legislative Yuan for nine years. And now she is still devoting herself to sports in Taiwan. In Taiwan, her name ¡§Cheng Chi¡¨ almost equals to ¡§sports.¡¨

¡@¡@Ms. Cheng Chi told us that she started to go walking for losing weight at first, and she never stops this sports activity since as a former excellent sportsman, she knows the importance of perseverance. In 2004, after her sixty-year-old birthday, she started to promote the activity of ¡§Million Walkers¡¨ in order to improve everyone¡¦s health and make our country image better. Her goal is to make everyone walk 100,000 steps everyday and her dream is that this meaningful activity can increase the notability of Taiwan.

Million Walker Club

Ms. Cheng Chi visiting the U.S. in 1971

¡@¡@In 2002, Ms. Cheng Chi participated in the activity of ¡§walking 100,000 steps a day for your own health¡¨ held by Department of Health as an endorser since her health condition was getting better out of walking. Therefore, in 2004, when the Hope Foundation established the organization of Million Walkers, she also joined this activity for the hope that everyone can be healthy by go walking.

¡@¡@The origin of the name ¡§Million Walkers¡¨ is very interesting. The word ¡§million¡¨ has several meanings: it means the hope that at least one million people can join this activity; it also means a participant should make a calculation that how many days does it take to walk one million steps; the last meaning is that if everyone is health, the National Health Insurance can be saved for at least NT$1 million. The meanings of ¡§Million¡¨ is meaningful!

Hope Foundation

¡@¡@The activity of ¡§Walking 100,000 steps a day for your own health¡¨ promoted by Department of Health matches the idea of ¡§Energy saving; Carbon Reduction¡¨ since not extra fees is required when taking a walk and it will not be restricted by space limitation. In order to achieve the goal of walking 100,000 steps, people will ride their motorcycles or take the elevator less.

¡@¡@When promoting the activity of Million Walkers, Hope Foundation asked for RT Mart¡¦s assistance in promotion, publicity, and registration. They also invited the doctors from Taipei Medical University to tell the public that walking is a very healthy exercise with professional angles. Director Lien told us he was quite moved by RT Mart since during promotion, RT Mart almost sponsored everything such as labor, DM printing, PR, and even the site of activity. In addition, billboards of this activity could almost be seen everywhere around RT Mart. RT Mart did successfully apply the concept of ¡§placement marketing¡¨ to the promotion of this activity.

The strong support of RT Mart

Million Walker Club

¡@¡@RT Mart also provided an additional service in this activity. The participants who joined this activity in RT Mart could buy two step counters with only NT$600. The reason why RT Mart offered two step counters was that the participant could take a walk with a friend or with one of their family and he/she would not feel alone. RT Mart has constantly sponsored the activity of ¡§Walking 100,000 steps a day for your own health¡¨ since year 2002 to 2006. In 2007, in order to promote the ¡§National Walking Day¡¨ on November11, this activity was suspended. National Walking Day is also an activity that promotes the benefits of walking. Why this date is chosen? Since 11.11 can be the symbols of two legs. In 2008, RT Mart also assisted the walking activity on Father¡¦s Day.

¡@¡@The original purpose of holding Million Walkers was to promote the benefits of health and walking, and it never occurred to Hope Foundation that other achievements were achieved as well after the long periods of publicity and promotion. These achievements are indicated as follows:

Director Ching-chian Lien of the Hope Foundation explains the origin of the Million Walker event

1.Improving personal health
2.Improving interpersonal relationships since people will meet their neighbors when taking exercise
3.Making people care about their community: only when taking a walk in their community can people fall in love with the place they live
4.Reducing the expenditure of National Health Insurance: chronic diseases will be reduced when people exercise more
5.Reducing air pollution: more people choose to walk rather than to drive
6.Energy saving: reducing making use of petroleum and electricity
7.Improving the image of Taiwan: beautifying Taiwan by energy saving and environment protection
¡@¡@Walking not only makes people healthy and strong, but also brings a lot of benefits to people.

¡@¡@Ms. Cheng Chi also shared a story with us. During the promotion of Million Walkers, Chunhwa Telecom set a sensor on each floor of their building, which can sense their employee ID cards. This sensor will count the times that an employee takes stairs, and when an employs has taken stairs for three hundred times he/she can buy things for free in Chunhwa Telecom¡¦s store. This device does not only help improve the image of corporation but also saves some money for the corporation.

¡@¡@Through this interview, we start to realize the benefits of walking and we also understand how RT Mart and Hope Foundation have made efforts for this activity. We hope the benefits of taking exercise can be remembered by everyone.