For eight weeks this past spring, over 250 teams committed to walking at least 50 miles a week while taking a virtual tour of Route 6 through the Everybody Walks Across PA program. The participants logged in over 107,000 miles.

The Everybody Walks Across PA was a program of the Penn State Cooperative Extension Offices, spearheaded by Wyoming County's extension agent, Karen Bracey. The goal was to help people eat healthier and move more.

Partnering with the PA Route 6 Alliance and its nine convention and visitors bureaus, the program motivated participants to walk 400 miles over the 8 weeks, the equivalent to trekking across the whole length of Route 6 in Pennsylvania. The CVB partners provided information on sites along the way, promotional items and weekly giveaways.

Participants received weekly updates on what they would be seeing or visiting each week as they traveled from west to east. They also got tips on farmer's market and healthy products from each of the counties.

In the end, 94% of the respondents to a post-walk survey said that they increased their physical activity, while 42% increased their vegetable and fruits intake.

Were they motivated by the virtual tour of Route 6? Some said they were motivated to get healthier anyway and the tour was a bonus; 45% said that the walk across Route 6 was a motivator and 30% plan on visiting a site they learned about in their weekly updates.