There is a scene in the comedy classic Anchorman (a.k.a. the funniest movie of all-time) where Ron Burgundy (played by Will Ferrell) is telling the rest of his crew why he can’t meet up with them later on. He explains:

Veronica and I are trying this new fad called, uh, jogging. I believe it’s ‘jogging’ or ‘yogging.’ It might be a soft j, I’m not sure, but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild!

While Scott is not likely to take up either jogging or yogging anytime soon (I still go out and yog on occasion), we have a cool new event for those of you who jog, yog, walk, run, strut, prance, dance, twirl, or engage in another preferred means of locomotion. We are happy to announce the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge, sponsored by the good folks over at Talem Health.

Here is how you can participate in the CMEpalooza Steptacular Challenge:

• The challenge begins today (October 10) and will go until the end of the day Sunday (October 16)
• The challenge is to record at least 10,000 steps a day. For each day during the challenge period that you record 10,000 steps, please send in a screenshot of your step-counting device with the number of recorded steps, either by email (thecmeguy@gmail.com) or text (267-666-0CME [0263]). Please include the following information:
  • Screenshot of number of steps
  • Name
  • Email
  • Physical mailing address
  • T-shirt size
• Each screenshot submitted is an entry into a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card (there are five gift cards; you cannot win more than one.) Winners will be drawn during the week of CMEpalooza.
• The person who records and submits the most steps in one day wins a $250 Amazon gift card
• Everyone who enters will receive a CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge performance T-shirt from Talem Health. They’re pretty great, see? (No, I am not the model) (Note from Scott: Gee, what gave it away?)
  
• In lieu of an entrance fee, we are asking everyone to please consider joining CMEpalooza and Talem Health in making a donation to the Red Cross Hurricane Ian Relief fund. The recommended amount is $25, or whatever you are comfortable giving. Please follow this link to make a donation.

Thanks everyone and good luck!

CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge sponsored by:

No haiku or limericks or Top 5 lists or trivia competitions or MS Paint cartoons or political satire or CME Detectives or reminiscences of favorite concerts or poking fun at Scott (so easy!) or fake awards or Sixers references or any other clever (and less clever) gimmicks.

This is a straightforward plea for you to submit your questions for the CMEpalooza Hotline by the end of the day today. One of our panelists is located in Hawaii so the hotline will be open late. We have a few questions; we could use more. This is your chance to get your burning grants questions answered!

As a reminder, there are two options to submit your questions:

Option #1:

Option #2: Text your questions to the Grants Hotline at 267-666-0CME (0263)

The following is a factual statement: the #1 requested topic for CMEpalooza (Every. Single. Time.) is “More content about grants.” It doesn’t matter how many times we do one, people want more. With that in mind, now is your opportunity to get all your grants-related questions answered. The Grants Hotline is officially open and operators are standing by!

Our Grants Hotline session is scheduled for 3 pm ET during CMEpalooza Fall (Wednesday, Oct. 19), and the concept is fairly simple. Submit your question via one of the methods listed below and our expert panel will answer it*. That’s it, that’s the session. The more questions you ask, the more content we have.

*I feel obligated to state that your question needs to be related to the grants process, panelists can opt out of questions they aren’t comfortable answering, and we might not be able to get to every question. I also feel obligate to state that tonight is the first game of the NFL season, which has nothing to do with CMEpalooza but is still important to know, nonetheless.

How to submit your questions:

Option #1:

Option #2: Text your questions to the Grants Hotline at 267-666-0CME (0263)

We are going to leave the Grants Hotline open until September 22, so you have two weeks to get your questions in. After that, you will just have to wait until CMEpalooza on October 19. Rumor has it that our fearless moderator will be showing off his Hotline Bling dance moves at the end of the session. Tune in to find out! (note: he didn’t actually tell me that he would be dancing, nor did I ask him, but he also didn’t not tell me that he would be dancing, so who knows?)