RichmondGRID.com: Sports Backers Gets Active

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Sports Backers Gets Active

Get ready, Richmond - you've been challenged. Sports Backers, the organizers of the region's most talked about fitness-inspired activities, is setting the bar high this year.

4/19/2012 9:07:21 PM

By Amanda Meadows

A new movement, called Active RVA, aims to make Greater Richmond the most active region in the country.

If you're a Richmonder with even a basic interest in fitness, chances are you've heard of Sports Backers. Their popular events, stretching over 22 years in RVA, have run the gamut from Dominion RiverRock and the Anthem Moonlight Ride to the SunTrust Richmond Marathon and the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10K.

Active RVA, the latest and greatest aspect of the Sports Backers story, is not only challenging Greater Richmond to become the most physically active region in the country but to make sure a variety of activities are available to everyone. This newly launched movement is making facilities, training teams, and events accessible and affordable.

Jon Lugbill, executive director of Sports Backers and Active RVA, describes the new project as something the entire community can be part of without limits. "Companies, schools, and communities can be partners...individuals are already volunteering to reach out to their friends and neighbors to live a more active lifestyle through running and walking programs," Lugbill explains. "Employers are already instituting changes to get their workforces moving," adds Lugbill.

Designed as a community-wide collaborative, Active RVA plans to accomplish its goal by advocating for area schools to have 150 minutes of physical activity per week, providing awards to businesses that take special steps to promote physical activity in the workplace, and continuing to create new events that promote an active lifestyle.

Not only will Active RVA build a broad spectrum of programs, the movement will also mobilize volunteers to improve local infrastructure. Lugbill says that bike trails, sidewalks, and walking paths will be built by members of the community.

Lugbill sees Active RVA as a collaborative, pay-it-forward concept applied to our community's health and fitness. "It's not about events or gyms or fancy programs," says Lugbill. "It's about friends and co-workers taking the time to encourage and support someone they know and care about to take that first step toward an active life."

Amanda Meadows is a traffic reporter for CBS6 in Richmond known for tweeting during commute times and leaping from tall buildings for a good cause.

Article from Issue #14