West Virginia University School of Journalism faculty, staff and adjuncts plan to walk their way to healthier lifestyles on a more than 2,500-mile”Virtual March on Washington.”

With the help of the schools Public Relations Student Society of America, employees will log the miles they walk, bike, swim or exercise. PRSSA students will collect the miles each week and track how far employees have walked across America on their trek to Washington, D.C.

Employees will”virtually”march through several media towns, including the film capital of Los Angeles, Calif., and Atlanta, CNN s headquarters.

“It really promotes the importance of daily regular exercise, which does more to improve peoples health than just about anything,”said Associate Professor Dr. Ralph Hanson, the schools nutrition and wellness task force representative.

“And its always easier to do things when you have a group encouraging you,”Hanson said.

School of Journalism employees came up with the idea for the march in response to President David C. Hardesty Jr.s recently initiated Nutrition and Wellness Task Force, led by Vice President Ken Gray.

Hardesty developed the task force to help create a campus and community environment that provides information, experiences and models to help students, staff, faculty and West Virginia citizens to develop healthy lifestyles that enhance lifelong wellness.

More and more companies are developing wellness programs to help cut insurance costs and to increase productivity among employees. More than 80 percent of businesses with 50 or more employees provide health promotion programs, according to the Wellness Councils of America.

PRSSA is working to develop a prize system that will help encourage J-School employees to participate, and will coordinate the program throughout the year.

PRSSA had been searching for a project to tackle for the year. PRSSA President Becca Hatton of Manassas, Va., said her main initiative for the year was to increase student involvement on campus.

“Plus it provides practice for the students before they enter our National Bateman Competition in the spring,”Hatton said.

Hanson said he would never have been able to initiate the project on his own. And since many of the public relations students are interested in health care public relations, the project was tailor made for PRSSA , he said.

Employees will have from Oct. 6 until May 2004 to march from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.