On Friday, Sept, 16, the first day of the three-day bike-sharing event that Humana is sponsoring as part of Wellness Week activities in New York, about 4,000 people had stopped by the bike station on Columbus Circle

And as the following numbers show, hundreds have already learned first-hand that healthy things can be fun and fun things can be healthy.

• Approximately 750 people rode a bike to make a smoothie.
• 1,300 people received free Humana Gear pedometers and registered with Humana fit.
• By 7 p.m. Friday, 157 people had taken a free one-hour bike ride through Central Park with their Humana vouchers.  To put that into context, the health and environmental impact of the Humana vouchers equals 389,200 calories burned.

If you want more information about this event or would like to see videos and photos scroll down and read our articles below.

“Humana is leading the charge,” said Bonnie Lowen after using her own pedal power to create a smoothie at the Humana bike-sharing station in New York on Friday, Sept. 16. (See video below.)

Bonnie and other visitors at the bike-sharing event that Humana is sponsoring at Columbus Circle as part of Wellness Week activities in New York were asked to describe their experience at the station and to tell us what well-being means to them. Here are some examples of the messages visitors left on the well-being wall when asked “What does well-being mean to you?”

• Having fun with your kids
• 60 and fit – keep it moving
• Live, love, laugh
• Being happy with what you have
• Surround yourself with family and friends
• Making every day better than yesterday – making better choices
• Exercise, family, laughter and faith
• Be fit, have fun and live fierce
• Stay active and productive
• Find balance
• Feeling good in your own skin
• Living, prosperity, surviving
• Being in total harmony (economic, social, love life)
• Be a Fruit Loop in a world of Cheerios

Wonder, wellness and wow! That message from an enthusiastic participant at Humana’s bike-sharing event in Central Park on Friday morning, may best sum up the opening day of the first-ever Wellness Week in New York.

Humana is proud to partner with The New York Academy of Medicine, City College of New York, the Pan American Health Organization, and the World Economic Forum to promote well-being activities. To kick off the week, Humana is sponsoring a free bike-sharing program from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sept. 16-18 at Columbus Circle in partnership with “Bike and Roll.” In addition to the free one-hour rides in Central Park, visitors to the well-being station are using pedal power to make their own smoothies, receiving free pedometers and seeing demonstrations of innovative wellness platforms, such as Humana fit and the Urban Fit Bike, a prototype of a bike that encourages ultimate fitness and helps riders maximize the health benefits they get from biking.

The goal of Humana’s sponsorship of the event is to emphasize fun while promoting healthy behavior change that can save lives and reduce overwhelming costs. And judging from the smiles at the bike-sharing station, the stunt bike demonstration and the launch event in Harlem, there might be no better way to show that healthy things can be fun and fun things can be healthy.