Boomer Alert! Who remembers the 50 mile hike that came from Kennedy's physical fitness campaign?

Boomer Alert! Who remembers the 50 mile hike that came from Kennedy's physical fitness campaign? It became the thing to do in 1962-63.My friends and I made 20 miles and stopped to have a sandwich but when it came time to go again we could hardly stand up.

Did anyone else take up the challenge? Asked by galileogirl 45 months ago Similar questions: Boomer Alert remembers 50 mile hike Kennedy's physical fitness campaign Health > Fitness & Diet.

Similar questions: Boomer Alert remembers 50 mile hike Kennedy's physical fitness campaign.

Did it in high school Not so long ago (late Eighties), I did a "Kennedy March" as a high school senior. It was seen as an alternative to running a marathon. Background and history from Wikipedia:Kennedy marchFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA Kennedy march is a long-distance march of 50 miles or 80 kilometers (note that 50 miles is actually approximately 80.45 kilometers), named after former American president John F.

Kennedy's following words uttered in 1963: "I think most American people are so weak, they can't even walk fifty miles within twenty hours". Kennedy marches have since been organised to prove John F. Kennedy wrong in this pessimistic view.

Contents hide1 Origin2 Kennedy March Sittard2.1 2 Statistics2.3 Organisation3 External linkseditOriginPresident Kennedy addressed the issue of physical fitness frequently in his public pronouncements and assigned new projects to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, an organization established by Kennedy's predecessor Eisenhower on July 16, 1956. Perhaps Kennedy's most famous intervention in the area of fitness, and an indicator of the extent to which the Council became identified with him, was the fifty-mile march. The idea of the march developed from Kennedy's discovery in late 1962 of an executive order from Theodore Roosevelt challenging U.S.Marine officers to finish 50 miles in twenty hours.

Kennedy passed the document on to his own marine commandant, General David M. Shoup, and suggested that Shoup bring it up to him as his, Shoup's, own discovery, with the proposal that modern day marines should duplicate this feat. Shoup, of course, responded speedily, and the President went on to say that:Should your report to me indicate that the strength and stamina of the modern Marine is at least equivalent to that of his antecedents, I will then ask Mr. Salinger to look into the matter personally and give me a report on the fitness of the White House Staff.In his conversations with his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, Kennedy left no doubt that "looking into the matter personally" would involve Salinger walking fifty miles himself.

A well-padded individual with a sense of humor about himself, Salinger turned his efforts to avoid the march into an open joke, finally releasing a statement on February 12, 1963, in which he publicly declined the honor. As justification, Salinger pointed to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's completion of the march as proof of the fitness of the administration.

The President's brother had undertaken the march on an impulse, and although clad in leather oxford shoes, had slogged the distance through snow and slush. But the real impact of the fifty mile march was with the public at large, which took it as a personal request and a challenge from their President. Furthermore, responsibility for the President's challenge was presumed to lie with the President's Council.

This put the council in a tricky position. To disavow the marches would undermine its declared purposes. On the other hand, the council wanted no part of having the marches thrust on it as a program by an overenthusiastic public.

As a compromise, the council sent out a cautious press release recommending a moderate, gradual program of walking for exercise. For the more persistent, the council prepared a background letter explaining the origin of the march, again suggesting a sensible walking regimen, and stating emphatically that government agencies were not sponsoring or rewarding hikes. However the Amos Alonzo Stagg Foundation did present Bronze medals 1 to those who completed the 50 mile hike in less than 12 hours during the initial 30 days of the challenge.

EditKennedy March SittardThe Kennedy-Mars Sittard is the oldest Kennedy March of the Netherlands. EditstoryThe Kennedy march became a fad in the UK shortly after American people took up Kennedy's challenge. After Dutch television showed images of the Kennedy march craze, some Dutch people decided to make an attempt at finishing the 80 kilometers within 20 hours.

In the city of Sittard, situated in the most southern province of the Netherlands, four young people decided to walk the march during their Easter holidays. April 20, 1963, they began their route with 7 friends, beginning and ending in Sittard and covering pieces of Germany and Belgium. One girl took a bus in the German town of Heinsberg, but the other 3 girls and 7 boys persisted and finished in 19 hours' time.

They decided immediately to try to do the march one year after and thus a tradition was born. EditStatisticsThe number of participants grew over the years, with a peak in 1989 when 7090 people enrolled. Having 3394 participants in July 16, the Kennedy March of Sittard is still the biggest long-distance hike (that is, a hike of more that 59 kilometers) of the Netherlands.

Due to the risk of spreading foot-and-mouth disease, the march was cancelled in July 16, so including July 16 the march has been organised 43 times. EditOrganisationThe Kennedy March of Sittard has been, and still is, organised largely by members of the Van der Loo family, one of whom was in the four men who initiated the idea in 1963. EditExternal linksJFK Fitness programmeKennedy March Sittard (NL)Kennedy March Driesum/Wouterswoude (NL)news about the 50 mile hike in Maryland, usahttp://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/reporters_notebooks_display.htm?StoryID=66085 Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_march .

1 I remember it. I had some friends who did it but I was a cross country runner at the time and didn't want to disturb my training routine. I guess I was wrong about you.

You must be near as old as me.

I remember it. I had some friends who did it but I was a cross country runner at the time and didn't want to disturb my training routine. I guess I was wrong about you.

You must be near as old as me.

2 I remember them as well.....never took one though.....where I lived at the time, if I took a 50-mile hike I would have wound up out in the middle of nowhere in a cornfield.

I remember them as well.....never took one though.....where I lived at the time, if I took a 50-mile hike I would have wound up out in the middle of nowhere in a cornfield.

3 I did an AAS 50 mile hike in 1969 in Hawaii as a 12 year old boy scout. Troop 189, Honolulu, HI, from Moanalua to Makaha and back. Had to complete in 24 hours.

Got a lovely brass medal as a reward which hangs above my desk. -Richard .

I did an AAS 50 mile hike in 1969 in Hawaii as a 12 year old boy scout. Troop 189, Honolulu, HI, from Moanalua to Makaha and back. Had to complete in 24 hours.

Got a lovely brass medal as a reward which hangs above my desk. -Richard.

4 Meant to add, the hike was sponsored by the Amos Alonzo Stagg Foundation (AAS) who provided the medals....

Meant to add, the hike was sponsored by the Amos Alonzo Stagg Foundation (AAS) who provided the medals....

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I'm looking for a CD for physical fitness walking. Any ideas where I can find this?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.