Amherst Involved In International Walking Competition

It's time to prove which Amherst is the best in North America.  They're gonna do it by taking part in an international walking competition.

The competition is pretty simple. Who can walk the furthest of all of the Amhersts in North America.  Yes...there are multiple towns called 'Amherst.'  The one that got it started was in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada.  According to WKBW, they have an annual walking competition there already, but this year, numbers have been down a lot.  So Allison Watson, the Active Living Coordinator, in Amherst, Nova Scotia decided to offer to other Amhersts to join in.  They got responses from 2 others.  One was in Amherst, New Hampshire.  The other, of course, was here in Amherst, NY.

"This is a great idea because there’s not much we can be doing this time of the year and COVID has restricted people so badly in getting in their normal health stuff,"Lisa Kistner, Assistant to the Amherst Town Supervisor.

All you have to do to take part in the challenge is get outside and take a walk or a jog.  Then record the distance that you traveled and send it to the town to be added to the total.

Kistner believes we are going to win too.  Not only are we competitive people, we also have them outnumbered.  These towns that we are competing against are much smaller than our Amherst.  The towns we are up against have populations around 12,000.  Our Amherst has a population of around 126,000.  So even if everyone just walks a little bit, we should have a good chance of winning it.

So what do we get if we win?  Bragging rights. We get to say that we are the best Amherst in North America and that is enough for a lot of people.