The Results are in Orange City Loses nearly 400 Pounds!

ORANGE CITY, Fla., April 21, 2017 After 10 weeks of hard work, Orange City's fourth annual Mayor's Fitness Challenge came to a close on April 11.

Created in 2014 as a way to encourage residents to keep physically active, Orange City's Mayor's Fitness Challenge is a 10-week program that involves an assortment of physical activities and ideas for a healthier diet. This year's challenge began Jan. 31, and participants engaged in various activities, such as boot camps and exercise classes provided by Latow's Fitness and Nutrition, Zumba with Maria, Darkwolf MMA, and much more.

Nearly 70 community members joined the City of Orange City for this year's challenge and more than half returned for the final weigh-in. Collectively, the group lost 387 pounds and 128 inches!

Participants received baseline lab work and biometric screenings, courtesy of Florida Hospital Fish Memorial. At the end of the challenge, Florida Hospital Fish Memorial retook participants measurements to determine the weight lost.

Douglas Morefield won first place and $750, losing 57 pounds and 13 inches. Carlos A. Cerrud came in second and received $500, losing 33 pounds and 7.5 inches. Coming in third, Andy McNeill received $250 and lost 30 pounds and 6 inches.

During the challenge, participants were encouraged to keep track of their daily steps and exercise on a provided template and submit them every week. From those submissions, Cindy Greene was named the Most Consistent Exerciser.

Doug Morefield was also the Greatest Number of Steps winner, walking a total of 2,079,476 steps which equates to 935 miles, the distance from Orange City to Philadelphia. He along with three other participants were inducted into the exclusive Million Steps Club. These four individuals collectively walked over 6.1 million steps approximately 3,000 miles!

1. Doug Morefield 2,079,476 (935 miles)
2. Raul Palenzuela, 1,342,361 (758 miles)
3. Kathy Grady, 1,647,958 (737 miles)
4. Pam Sweeney, 1,105,936 (552 miles)

I want to personally congratulate everyone who participated in the challenge. Its great to see a program that helps our community become more active, Mayor Gary Blair said. We're already looking forward to next years challenge. . . it will be bigger and better than ever.

Winners were announced at the ending ceremony at Mill Lake Park on April 15.

This challenge would not have been possible without the sponsors, Florida Hospital Fish Memorial, World Risk Management and Hylant Group.