Central Cares, Inc located in Coralville, IA is a childcare center that offers before-and-after school programs for children. It provides age-appropriate activities that help enhance children's emotional, social, mental and physical abilities. Central Cares has been a partner withHealthy LifeStars since 2018, and Tammy Osterhaus has been the Director there since. Tammy’s site is the winner of the 2025 Healthy LifeStars StepAThon challenge. The children at the site had an average of 40, 242 steps per participant for the week! WAY TO GO!!
Director Tammy said that the kids were very excited about the StepAThon this year and she provided an added challenge – “If the kids could beat her average step count – they would win an additional prize!” Tammy said she had an unusually slow start to her week with steps, so the kidswere super motivated! Some were so motivated that even after a full day of playing and working hard, they continued their stepping on treadmills athome in the evenings! WOW!
The Healthy LifeStars coaches from the University of Iowa (Russell Nieman, Grace Bode, Esme Gibson, Laruen Geerdes, and Grace Clemens ) also played an important role in encouraging the students. They taught a lesson on goal setting, linking it to the StepAThon. The coaches guided the kids insetting both individual and group goals. The coaches helped the kids brainstorm creative ways to incorporate different physical activities into their routines to reach those goals. Thanks to the coaches for making such a big impact!
This is not the first StepAThon challenge that Tammy has held for her center. She shared that ever since her first HLS StepAThon in 2019 she was inspired to create more challenges that promote physical activity for her students. She holds her own events for the kids, involving getting steps to major landmarks or national parks. Once the class has reached the step goal, for example "stepping all the way toMount Rushmore, or to Disneyland", she rewards them with a special treat, such as watching a Disney movie or enjoying a special snack like S’mores. Tammy has been a great partner with the HLS program, and we look forward to many more StepAThon's in the future!