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This is fun
ACSM/EIM Annual Meeting
Before I get into what transpired at the conference, I have some constructive comments for the administration at Denver's International Airport. Ok first, I get it - beautiful place, friendly people, and I love the whole tent thing. But it can't all be about beauty, there has to be substance behind it. Specifically, I'm referring to the Customs department. When I arrived on my direct from Columbus, there was no one helping me to customs. A matter of fact, I had to cut across multiple areas of the terminal, going well out of my way to speak with someone in that department. This was not good, as I was already ticked there were no declaration forms handed out on the flight (I fault the arrival city). And wait 'til you hear this - it'll blow you away. I finally get there and they won't take me. They wouldn't take me in line! Look, I don't mean this as a slight on the TSA or whoever was working in Denver customs Tuesday, but come on. The people I initially spoke with were insistent that you had to have traveled from another country to go through the line! I hate to share that, but I'm sorry, they said it, not me. This, of course, led to multiple discussions over the next 2 hours with 4 separate officials. Unfortunately, these talks grew more and more heated until eventually a crowd developed. To their credit, at the end of the day, they finally checked my mangos and spider plants. Obviously, with the proper education of their staff, it didn't need to be this way. To a slight degree, I feel bad. The employees that were gathering were trying hard to contain a nervous laughter, thus making me sympathize with them. But, despite the tumultuous couple hours in Denver, I think we, and all future DIA travelers are all better off. Enough of that. Ok, the conference was incredible. This was the annual meeting for the American College of Sports Medicine (www.acsm.org) and the Exercise is Medicine (www.exerciseismedicine.org) group. There were over 5000 health care professionals attending from around the world. Kathryn had the idea to purchase an exhibitor's booth to share our program with this group. Thank you Kathryn. Kathryn, Dr. Wendy, and I truly loved meeting and hearing from hundreds of like-minded individuals. We are also very grateful to ACSM and EIM for providing this most opportune platform to share Walk with a Doc. Most all the people we spoke with are physicians representing their groups, hospitals, universities, or cities looking to increase the activity level of their community. I'm still going over numbers, but at the end of Thursday (with 40% of the conference remaining), we have had requests from leaders in approximately 30 new states and 16 new countries. The level and intensity of interest was unexpected and incredibly humbling. Conservatively, we will be easily adding over 90 walk sites around the United States and beyond as the conference ends this evening. We are, no doubt, ecstatic about the step forward. However, with this growth we feel strongly about a few things we need to get of our chest. Most importantly, we cannot be more proud of our current walk sites and we will continue to remain easily accessible. You accepted this idea from the start and you have been instrumental in building the program's foundation. Our sense of loyalty to you cannot adequately be described in an email. Second, we will be providing the new sites with the same level of service and commitment our current partners hopefully feel they have received. We need our new partners to be 100% satisfied with their decision to Walk with a Doc. Finally, the program will continue to be based on exact same principles that got us to this point - doing everything in our power to break down all barriers to exercise. (Thanks, I feel better) Volunteers Over the years, many of you have offered to volunteer. Thank you. For those within driving distance of WWAD World HQ (Westerville, OH), we need you more than ever. Last week, our board proposed the great idea of establishing weekly 3-4 hour shifts for those interested in helping the program. Shortly, we will be setting up a brief evening informational session (at WWAD HQ) for the week of June 13-17th. During that meeting Kathryn and I will share details regarding what we feel will be involved. If you have any interest (I hope so), please respond to this email and we will get back with you by midweek. Let me tell you, it is pretty exciting watch our dream evolve into reality. Thank you again, obviously this program would not be close to where it is without you. For all this week's walks sites, times, and locations - please go our site (www.walkwithadoc.org). Seriously, thanks for all your time this morning. Truth be told, I'm writing the newsletter on the plane and I'm afraid the ripple I'm drinking may have me even more "verbose" than usual. Anyway, have a great day and please keep after your 150 minutes - it's like 2 and a half hours of free entertainment. See you Saturday, David | 
