LOS ANGELES, July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- ExakTime, a leader in mobile workforce management whose time tracking devices and time clock app have been adopted by over 20,000 businesses in 15 years, has added a singular new customer: the City of Allentown, Pennsylvania's health bureau. Their intent: to track people who are walking for healthier hearts.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160720/391656
This spring in Allentown, hundreds of city residents of all ages began "clocking in" on five designated walking paths throughout the city on ExakTime's all-weather JobClock/EXs, using ExakTime keytabs, 500 of which ExakTime donated to the cause.
"We have seen our product on everything from school busses to skyscrapers, but we are pleasantly surprised to see it contributing to the health of a community," said ExakTime President John O'Hara. "We are proud to help sponsor such a great cause."
The program, Million Clicks for Million Hearts, was conceived by the Allentown Health Bureau as a part of the U.S. Center for Disease Control's Million Hearts™ initiative, which aims to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017.
"It's a unique idea. We've really had a good response so far, even without a lot of publicity," said Allentown Nutrition and Physical Activity Manager Tina Amato. "We're very excited to see how it goes."
An Intern Finds ExakTime
Allentown first used one of ExakTime's JobClocks for a walking program in 2011 called the LifeTrail Club after a parks department employee (then an intern) discovered ExakTime online.
"We were looking for a way to track people, and she did some research and came back with ExakTime's JobClock," Amato recalled.
The city mounted a JobClock at the head of a city park trail that also featured multiple exercise stations. Participants, who had to be 50 or older, used keytabs to count their walks on the clock, which registered them for monthly prizes and educational talks.
Ramping It Up
When the health bureau received funding from Million Hearts as part of a state grant, Amato and her colleagues thought back to the success of using the JobClock for the LifeTrail Club. "We said, 'Why don't we just really go big with it?'" she recalled.
Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania, and heart disease is the number one killer there, as it is in the rest of the nation. Recent findings have shown that walking reduces the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as much as running, according to the American Heart Association.
So for Million Clicks, Amato and her team ramped up their "click-in stations" to five walking paths throughout the city, some downtown and some within the city's beautiful parks.
There's no age restriction this time, and interest has been high. "We've given out 500 keytabs, and we got 1,000 clicks in the first month of the program," which kicked off April 7, Amato said. In June there were nearly 3,000 clicks.
Every time a participant clicks in during the month, their name is entered again to win one of the monthly prizes, which range from health club discounts to restaurant gift certificates.
Bigger Horizons
The health bureau plans to use some free billboard space, post signs at all the trails, and publish articles in local media as part of a bigger publicity push over the next several months.
"We want to share our success statewide and even nationally among our partners in public health," Amato said. " we're really grateful for ExakTime's help."
Media Contact: Amy Bourne, ExakTime Inc., 818-937-1549, [email protected]
News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com
SOURCE ExakTime Inc
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Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160720/391656
This spring in Allentown, hundreds of city residents of all ages began "clocking in" on five designated walking paths throughout the city on ExakTime's all-weather JobClock/EXs, using ExakTime keytabs, 500 of which ExakTime donated to the cause.
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"We have seen our product on everything from school busses to skyscrapers, but we are pleasantly surprised to see it contributing to the health of a community," said ExakTime President John O'Hara. "We are proud to help sponsor such a great cause."
The program, Million Clicks for Million Hearts, was conceived by the Allentown Health Bureau as a part of the U.S. Center for Disease Control's Million Hearts™ initiative, which aims to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017.
"It's a unique idea. We've really had a good response so far, even without a lot of publicity," said Allentown Nutrition and Physical Activity Manager Tina Amato. "We're very excited to see how it goes."
An Intern Finds ExakTime
Allentown first used one of ExakTime's JobClocks for a walking program in 2011 called the LifeTrail Club after a parks department employee (then an intern) discovered ExakTime online.
"We were looking for a way to track people, and she did some research and came back with ExakTime's JobClock," Amato recalled.
The city mounted a JobClock at the head of a city park trail that also featured multiple exercise stations. Participants, who had to be 50 or older, used keytabs to count their walks on the clock, which registered them for monthly prizes and educational talks.
Ramping It Up
When the health bureau received funding from Million Hearts as part of a state grant, Amato and her colleagues thought back to the success of using the JobClock for the LifeTrail Club. "We said, 'Why don't we just really go big with it?'" she recalled.
Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania, and heart disease is the number one killer there, as it is in the rest of the nation. Recent findings have shown that walking reduces the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as much as running, according to the American Heart Association.
So for Million Clicks, Amato and her team ramped up their "click-in stations" to five walking paths throughout the city, some downtown and some within the city's beautiful parks.
There's no age restriction this time, and interest has been high. "We've given out 500 keytabs, and we got 1,000 clicks in the first month of the program," which kicked off April 7, Amato said. In June there were nearly 3,000 clicks.
Every time a participant clicks in during the month, their name is entered again to win one of the monthly prizes, which range from health club discounts to restaurant gift certificates.
Bigger Horizons
The health bureau plans to use some free billboard space, post signs at all the trails, and publish articles in local media as part of a bigger publicity push over the next several months.
"We want to share our success statewide and even nationally among our partners in public health," Amato said. " we're really grateful for ExakTime's help."
Media Contact: Amy Bourne, ExakTime Inc., 818-937-1549, [email protected]
News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com
SOURCE ExakTime Inc
