It shouldn’t be a surprise that Wisconsin Center District employees log a lot of steps at work. With more than 1.6 million square feet between the three facilities and jobs that involve constant movement, having regular step challenges seemed like a fun way to connect our everyday work with a little friendly competition.

What was unexpected was the sheer number of steps and interest these challenges have had. Three step challenges in, WCD employees have logged eye-popping step totals and miles walked. We’re talking in the millions. Specifically, 14,261,435 steps logged so far.

After learning of these totals, we simply had to investigate how our staff was logging these stats. We sat down with three of the top step takers to learn how the best of the best get it done.

These are their stories.

Kierra Noid-Binns

When Kierra is stationed for guest services duties around WCD’s venues, it’s not uncommon to see her marching in place or dancing.

That’s because life can feel stationary sometimes for guest services work. As an exercise science major at Mount Mary University, Kierra knows the importance of exercise and movement in her daily routine.

To get moving, Kierra said she just starts grooving to ensure she hits her personal steps goal of 10,000 steps per day. This includes everything from taking the stairs instead of the escalators or elevators to her nighttime routine.

“If I get close to midnight and I’m not at my goal, I get on my stepper or replay ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ by Whitney Houston or play some Prince,” Kierra said. “I’ll do whatever to keep me active.”

It’s this strategy that has made Kierra one of the top step takers in the completed step challenges.

After learning about the challenges at the last WCD Town Hall meeting, Kierra took second place for individual steps in both the Survivor and Reach the Beach challenges, logging a total of 566,883 steps (17,178 per day) and 392,365 steps, respectively.

Even though she motivates herself to always be moving, she has said the step challenges have given her an added incentive. That, and trying to catch Jacob on the leaderboard.

“I don’t know how he does it,” Kierra said. “I’m a little competitive, and I thought I was 2,000 steps behind Jacob. Then I realized he was like 50,000 steps ahead of me. I’m cool with second but I’m letting Jacob know, for the record, to bring it on. I’m coming for you. Respectfully, of course."

Kierra added that it has been fun to track her steps alongside coworkers. As an example, she said during the recent string of graduations at Panther Arena, she logged around 30,000 steps. Part of that was dancing and marching in place, but it was also guiding guests to their seats or directing people around the Arena.

For anyone on the fence about joining any upcoming step challenges, Kierra offers this advice.

“At first, this was just a nice way of challenging myself,” Kierra said. “I was, and am, determined to win, but it’s really just about taking time to move and be active every day. Sitting isn’t good for you, so whether you’re pacing side-to-side or marching in place or dancing, I just encourage everyone to move a little today, however they can.”

Krista Momsen

The longest day in Krista Momsen’s career came over a decade ago. Miley Cyrus was performing at the Bradley Center. Krista was managing the event.

Her shift started at 5 a.m. and by the time she signed off at 2 a.m. the next day, she had logged more than 36,000 steps. For those playing at home, that’s nearly 20 miles.

While every event day isn’t this extreme, the event managers are often putting in big days on their feet.

“When I do an event, I like to be visible,” Krista said. “I like to be out and about and checking things. That’s where I get most of my steps in on event days. On days I don’t have events, these step challenges give me motivation to get up and away from my desk for 10 to 15 minutes.”

As someone who shoots for the 10,000 steps per day goal, Momsen has kept active with nearly a decade at the Wisconsin Center District.

While it has been fun to see where other WCD employees stand in the step hierarchy, she has found it has also brought people together.

For the first challenge, in which she logged the most individual steps with 211,503 (more than 15,000 more than second place), Krista’s team of three faced an initial, separate challenge. While she and one teammate were logging steps, they couldn’t figure out why their third wasn’t logging many, if any, steps.

It turns out, the third teammate was struggling to sync their steps with the app. Once that was remedied, the team took first place.

While the bragging rights were nice, she noticed the bonding that was taking place because of the step challenges.

“It’s a great little break and chance to get up,” Krista said. “What was great to me was seeing a team reach out to each other and approach each other to say, ‘Hey, let’s go for a walk.’ It builds camaraderie and it’s just fun to do together.”

Krista did not participate in the second challenge but is eager to return for the next challenge.

“I have no trash talk for Jacob because I know he’s really getting all those steps in,” Krista said. “I am getting a little trash talk for having shorter legs and people saying it takes me more steps to go places, but I don’t care. It’s all in good fun.”

Jacob Trunk 

Signing up for the walking challenge was a no-brainer for Jacob Trunk. As an IT Technician who joined the WCD after graduating from UW-Whitewater two years ago, Trunk has no problem getting steps in at work every day.

On average, he says he gets, at least, 10,000 to 15,000 steps per day just at work. While he never tracked it, he knew his daily step count was high. So, when the step challenges began earlier this year, he thought he’d sign up and see how he compared to his peers.

“I never really kept tabs previously on how much I walk,” Jacob said. “I knew event managers and certain positions also walked a lot, always out and checking in with clients, but this was a nice way to make more of an effort to get out and walk. We’d all see what each other were doing and we wanted to match that.”

Turns out, Jacob has been in a league of his own.

After a fourth-place individual finish and second-place team finish in the Shamrock Shuffle Walking Challenge in March, Trunk has become untouchable in WCD’s step challenges.

For the Survivor Challenge in which people had to log an average amount of steps per day, increasing each week from 6,000 until they reached 10,000, Jacob logged 627,593 overall, or an average of 19,017 per day.

For the Reach the Beach challenge, Jacob’s team took first place led by his nearly 400,000 steps.

Jacob said all that comes with the victories is some workplace bragging rights and some praises in the hallways from coworkers, but, overall, it’s been a fun way to connect with his fellow WCD employees.

“It’s nice to see everyone partake in a little friendly competition in the office,” he said. “It’s been a fun way to get people motivated.”

Jacob plans to keep his reign at the top of the step challenges going as long as he can.

“I look forward to people trying to beat me,” Trunk joked. “I wish them the best of luck in that endeavor.”

Want to Get Involved?

Are you inspired to join an upcoming step challenge, or participate in another WCD employee event? Be sure to check back regularly on the Employee Events page on teamwcd.com. There, you’ll find all kinds of events from employee trainings to our town halls.