As much of the country continues to self-isolate due to the coronavirus pandemic, medical centers across the United States are joining forces to start a country-wide movement of physical activity to honor and support front-line health care workers at Michigan Medicine and 26 other health systems who have worked tirelessly to save lives.

#FitForTheFrontLine is a national fitness challenge beginning Tuesday, May 26, and culminating on Sunday, June 14 (Flag Day). The event encourages Americans young and old to move, exercise, and get fit to increase awareness and raise funds to support our nation’s health care heroes.

“Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the front line of nurses, doctors, scientists, and other support staff has met the historic challenge in the war against the virus,” said Richard A. Friedman, Co-Chairman, Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees and Chairman of the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs & Co. “The #FitForTheFrontLine challenge empowers all Americans to take part during this still-challenging time.”

The call to action is simple: choose any activity; dedicate your activity to Michigan Medicine or another #FitForTheFrontLine participating organization; post the institution’s donation link; and ask your network to pledge support. Gifts of any size make a difference and will support Michigan Medicine front-line staff through its COVID-19 Philanthropic Fund.

#FitForTheFrontLine partner medical centers include Mount Sinai Health System, Baylor College of Medicine, BJC HealthCare, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cedars-Sinai, Cleveland Clinic, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Hackensack Meridian Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mayo Clinic, MedStar Health, Michigan Medicine, Montefiore Einstein, NewYork-Presbyterian, Northwell Health Foundation, Northwestern Medicine, NYU Langone Health, Penn Medicine, RWJBarnabas Health, Temple Health, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, University of Chicago Medicine, UW Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, Weill Cornell Medicine and Yale New Haven Health.

Goldman Sachs & Co., Peloton, Discovery, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, dtx and Pinterest recognized the brave work of all front-line workers and have signed on to be the founding corporate sponsors for the #FitForTheFrontLine challenge. As part of their involvement, the sponsors will mobilize employees to join the movement, incentivize company-wide goals and / or matching donations, leverage senior leaders to serve as influencers, and promote the campaign through social media posts on their corporate channels.

COVID-19 will not be vanquished overnight, unfortunately. The fight will continue. Our frontline workers will care for and follow patients with long-term effects of COVID-19, and these brave heroes may yet mobilize again to face future outbreaks. They need our support now. No matter what the need is, our communities count on our front lines to be there for them and we will continue to count on our communities to support our front lines.

For more information, visit https://www.flow.page/michiganmedicine.

To join the campaign as a corporate sponsor, contact Katherine Parker at [email protected] or (917) 596-9344. To join as a medical center partner, contact Eileen Solomon at (646) 605-8801 or [email protected].

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