Leading a healthy lifestyle is vital for a balanced life and bringing the community one step closer to this goal has never been easier. Mayor Karen Hunt is attempting to promote this goal by encouraging residents of Coppell to join in on the statewide community pledge.

The IT’S TIME TEXAS Community Challenge has once again started. The challenge is designed to encourage healthy living by offering residents across Texas the chance to take the pledge to be more healthy.

As a community, Coppell has signed up for this challenge, competing with other Texas towns.

To get involved, residents simply register on the IT’S TIME TEXAS website, selecting the designated community they want to represent. Within their community, residents have the option of representing businesses, schools, organizations and individually, and they are encouraged to participate among all of these groups. By registering alone, each resident can earn 1,000 points for their community.

Once residents are registered, they can continue gaining points by logging their health related activities onto the website. The posts must follow the criteria in order to be counted as points. Posts failing to follow the guidelines will be deleted, and participants that continue to disregard the criteria will lose their rights to participate in the challenge.

Whether it is eating a healthy meal or going on a run, residents are given a variety of avenues in which to gain points for their community by posting about health related activities.

By signing up, participants receive access to posts from other residents in their area, including statistics such as total points, pounds lost and minutes of activity across the entire community.

Whichever community gets the most points altogether by March 31 receives $1,500 to fund Health and Wellness activities within their town.

“It is important that money goes towards health and wellness [programs] because it helps in the overall health of our school,” Coppell freshman cross country runner Giovanni Valladares said.

CHS softball and physical education coach Angelina Curtis is aiming to spread the word about the Community Challenge throughout Coppell High School, in the hopes that the high school will win, earning $1,500 for what would be the third year in a row.

“We are getting people to take the pledge to become healthy one step at a time whether it’s ‘I pledge to walk five minutes a day’ or ‘I pledge to eat less chips this week’ or something like that,” Curtis said. “We are just trying to help spread the word here at the high school in the hopes [that it] bleeds into the community.”

Curtis plans to use the money to fund field trips in programs such as aerobics, which will give students an opportunity to take more ventures outside of the school. The money could also go toward providing access to more tools such as Fitbits, new uniforms and gym equipment that will further enhance students learning in the gym.

“Kids should all have have an opportunity to be healthy and active, including those who are not in sports,” CHS junior Samah Khan said.

More than a competition, the Community Pledge strays away from traditional approach, providing an online support system to help people meet their health goals.

For information on the rules or any other questions regarding the Community Pledge, check the frequently asked question page on the website.