Findlay employees step up for Las Vegas Heart Walk

The American Heart Association held its annual Heart Walk in Las Vegas on Sept. 26, and the event was a roaring success, thanks in part to the support provided by members of Findlay Automotive Group. This is Findlay’s 10th straight year of participating in the Heart Walk.

This year’s walk was different. It had to be held virtually because of COVID-19, so Findlay created an internal step challenge.

In honor of it being Findlay’s 10th year sponsoring the walk, it was decided that the challenge should be over 10 days. Fifteen different teams from nearly all Findlay dealers in Southern Nevada competed to see who could get the most steps. The steps were tracked by various pedometer apps on smartphones and other devices.

“Our 15 Findlay teams comprised of 300 employees recorded more than 29 million steps over 10 days in our Heart Walk step challenge,” said Findlay Automotive Group CFO Tyler Corder. “I was worn out after I walked over 50 miles in the final three days of the contest.”

Corder said in the end Findlay dealerships contributed a total of $24,000 to the Las Vegas Heart Walk this year.

According to Jeff Giles, one of the Findlay team captains, “The step challenge was a lot of fun and the participants got really into it. When it started, we thought 10,000 steps in a day was pretty good, but in the final days of the challenge, we had people doing over 40,000 steps in day. It was wild.

“My team really gave it their all. What’s even better is that many of us are still walking more than we did before the challenge.”

The Las Vegas Heart Walk also received support from Encompass Health, Nevada State Bank, United Healthcare and iHeart Media.

“We’re incredibly grateful to local companies like Findlay Automotive Group for supporting this communitywide event,” said Debbie Smith, the American Heart Association’s executive director in Las Vegas. “And the news gets even better because many companies will still be fundraising for the Heart Walk throughout the next few months.”

Companies can still be a part of the year-round healthy living movement, which encourages wellness at work and home. To learn more, email the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk director, Kelley Grim, at kelley.grim@heart.org.