James Cook University mentors have stepped up to the challenge thrown down by Central Queensland University mentors to participate in the 10,000 STEPS City of Origin campaign.

The Physical Activity Capricornia Taskforce (PACT) is running a 10,000 Steps community-wide challenge in September/October 2006.

It is called the City of Origin as it is a challenge between Rockhampton and Townsville to see which city can record the most STEPS in relation to their total population.

The contest runs for 6 weeks from Sunday September 17 — Saturday October 28 and team registrations will be accepted throughout the challenge.

Mentor teams are stepping out and leading by example for other CQU student and staff members to increase their physical activity levels. A total of 28 CQU teams have registered so far.

As part of the challenge, the mentors from both cities wear a 10,000 step pedometer on their hip which counts the number of steps taken.

Each day, steps are recorded and calculated onto the 10,000 steps website.

Completing just 30 minutes of physical activity a day is a great way to clock up those steps and help Rockhampton show Townsville that we really are the more active city.

Pedometres are available for purchase through participating outlets or for loan at the CQU library. For further details visit:.

http://10000steps.org.au/downloads/cityoforigin_inforego.pdf .

Photo: (from left) CQU's Boban Arezina-Ilic, Constance Moore and Olive Mallory step out at the start of the City of Origin challenge.