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Richardson Parks and Recreation outlines 2026 Healthier Texas Community Challenge, seeks council pledge
Summary
Parks & Recreation staff briefed council on Richardson’s plans for the 2026 Healthier Texas Community Challenge—including a new University of Texas at Dallas partnership, a new app integration, incentive structure and events—and asked council to sign a partner pledge.
Parks & Recreation staff told the Richardson City Council that the city will participate in the 2026 Healthier Texas Community Challenge (Jan. 20–March 15) and asked councilmembers to sign a partner pledge supporting promotion and participation.
"We are accomplishing this by continuing to explore unique incentives," Ashley Wakefield, corporate recreation manager, told the council, outlining a program that rewards points for healthy actions and includes weekly prizes, destination check-ins and a new app integration with FitRankings. Wakefield described a new partnership with the University of Texas at Dallas to boost engagement and cost-share some raffle prizes and noted a city reward (a tumbler) for participants who accrue more than 25,000 points.
Wakefield reviewed 2025 participation numbers—including roughly 219 individual participants and over 1.9 million total points across the city—and described outreach plans (HOA contacts, corporate challenge engagement and events). The city will hold a January 17 kickoff session and a March 7 celebration walk/run at Huffines Park to close the challenge. Council had no substantive questions and supported signing the pledge and participating in the photo opportunity.
