Coca-Cola Inspires More than 3 Million People to “Get The Ball Rolling”

This summer, millions of people were inspired to move and groove with Coca-Cola as part of its Get The Ball Rolling initiative. Coca-Cola has reached its goal to inspire 3 million Americans to rediscover the joy of being active in communities across the country since May.

“For Coca-Cola, inspiring moments of happiness is part of our heritage and our future. What’s more fun than families and friends delighting in the joy of being active?” said Stuart Kronauge, General Manager, Sparkling Beverages, Coca-Cola USA. “While we teamed up with communities across the country this summer to get people moving more, we’re far from done. We plan to continue using our unequaled reach to inspire healthy and happy living.”

The Company, with The Coca-Cola Foundation, inspired more than 3 million people to get their “fun” on. It helped make activities and sports gear available in communities across the country all summer long.

One of the Company’s efforts to keep the movement going includes the grand opening of a new Live Positively Fitness Center at Asbury Park Middle School in New Jersey. Together, Coca‑Cola Americas President Steve Cahillane, Governor Chris Christie and fitness icon Jake Steinfeld showcased the facility today.

Asbury Park’s Live Positively Fitness Center is equipped with strength training machines, cardiovascular gear and interactive exercise games customized for middle school students. It’s one of 100 such facilities that will open at schools around the country over five years.

The fitness centers are expected to facilitate 5 million workouts. Center locations are focused on areas with high childhood obesity rates and areas that have few places for children to access state-of-the-art equipment. Participating schools are selected by the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils and the American College of Sports Medicine. Funding is provided through a grant from The Coca-Cola Company.

“The health of our children is vital to the health of our future and that’s why I’ve declared war on childhood obesity,” said Steinfeld to a crowd of students and community leaders. “We are providing schools with tools to improve fitness, benefit academics and combat obesity. We can overcome any challenge when we work together to inspire and motivate students. The partners who joined forces today bring this idea to life.”

The Asbury Park Live Positively Fitness Center is one of 12 locations opening in 10 days across Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey and West Virginia. The centers are part of Get the Ball Rolling activities that helped inspire more than 3 million Americans to move this summer. Other activities included:

• Collectively, NASCAR fans walked more than 17,000 miles through the Coca-Cola Track Walks program.
• Thousands of people decided to “Take It To The Park” by logging in more than 44,000 hours of activity to benefit their favorite parks. Their efforts helped win recreation grants as part of the America Is Your Park campaign.
• Families, teens and young adults received 100,000 free soccer balls at Coca-Cola sponsored events like Coca-Cola Swelter Stopper and Family Field Days in Atlanta and Chicago.
• Coca-Cola Happiness Trucks inspired more than 1 million people to move to the beat of summer’s hottest music during dance events across the country.
• Charlotte and Nashville’s Fit Family Challenge asked residents to compete in an eight-week physical activity program.
• Coca-Cola is partnering with the City of Sacramento to launch “Troops for Fitness” later today. This program supports the hiring of U.S. veterans to teach military-style fitness classes in citywide facilities.

Initiatives like Live Positively Fitness Centers and Get The Ball Rolling are part of The Coca-Cola Company’s commitment to bring people together to help address obesity. These efforts focused on engaging communities, families, experts and governments. In addition, the Company is delivering more beverage choices, calorie information and making physical activity opportunities more available than ever before.

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