Winners, Walkers, and More Winners

Dear Tulane Community:

Winning your own challenge would be a little awkward, right?

But someone actually raised that possibility when I announced the Fitts Bit Challenge last month.

Now that the totals for the challenge are in, I know that any worries my colleague had of me winning it were vastly, VASTLY misplaced. The first place winner was Anthony Contello, assistant technical director in the Department of Theatre and Dance, who logged 1,041,681 steps! That's 520.84 miles – or basically like walking from Tulane to the University of Texas at Austin. (I hope he didn’t actually do that.) Coming in second place with 703,161 steps or 351.58 miles was Brittany Kennedy, senior professor of practice in the Spanish and Portuguese Department. In third place was John Korn, assistant director of admissions in the Biomedical Sciences program with 564,273 steps or 252.14 miles. In a distant 15th place was your president at 427,095 steps or 213.55 miles. That’s not much farther than Lake Charles!

Fitts Bits winners received some great gifts, including an Apple Homepod (1st Place), an Apple Watch Series 4 (2nd place) and Apple Air Pods (3rd place). Plus all 142 participants received the gift of health and the joy of achieving personal goals.

Give Green 2019 was another recent moment of triumph for all Tulanians. This year’s Give Green surpassed its goals both for participation and the total amount raised. More than 2,400 students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, fans and friends from all 50 states and seven countries raised over $700,000 to support their favorite school, center or unit of Tulane. This video expresses some of our gratitude for your wonderful generosity and inspiring Green Wave spirit!

Thank you once again for your support for Tulane and congratulations to the winners and everyone who stepped up to participate in the Fitts Bit Challenge.

Now, I am going for a walk.