Proclamation 6684

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

We should all be aware of the benefits of regular physical activity; it can improve our energy levels while we expend calories. It can be as simple to incorporate into our daily lives as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking an extra block instead of riding, or taking a walk after a meal instead of taking a nap. Regular physical exercise can help to prevent and manage coronary heart disease, hypertension, noninsulin-dependent diabetes, osteoporosis, and mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. And regular physical activity has been associated with lower rates of colon cancer and incidence of stroke.

Walking is an excellent form of light to moderate physical activity for most people. Walking for at least 30 minutes each day is a simple and inexpensive, yet very healthful, thing to do. It is a key element in Healthy People 2000, the Nation's prevention agenda, which envisions a healthier America by the year 2000. An increase in this important, positive health-related exercise can have a significant effect on the enhanced quality and life span of those who practice it. It is an invigorating form of self-care that can contribute to the reduction of preventable death, disease, and disability and to the containment of health care costs. It also provides a time for reflection and stress reduction.

Efforts to communicate with the American people about the health benefits of regular walking and to improve environments that make walking pleasurable and safe deserve the support of policy makers, legislators, and citizens throughout the country.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 146, has designated May 1, 1994, through May 7, 1994, as "National Walking Week" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 1994, through May 7, 1994, as National Walking Week. I invite the Governors of the 50 States and the appropriate officials of all other areas under the jurisdiction of the United States to issue similar proclamations. I also encourage the American people to join with health and recreation professionals, private voluntary associations, and other concerned organizations in observing this occasion with appropriate programs and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eighteenth.

William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:08 p.m., May 9, 1994]