How do you get a million couch potatoes off their sectionals and into their Sauconys?

That’s the challenge BeActive North Carolina is taking on the first of the year when it launches its “One Million, More Active, More Often” program.

Despite the fact it’s been around since 1991, you may not be familiar with BeActive NC.  It was founded with a grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina with the goal of motivating Tarheels to move more. You may not have heard of them because they mostly work with the middleman, helping community agencies implement programs intended to get us moving. A tall ask in a state where nearly 50 percent of the kids and more than 50 percent of adults don’t get the minimum amount of physical activity they need. Those statistics — and the ripple effect in related medical costs, labor loss and reduced quality of life related to being overweight and in poor shape — are driving BeActive’s campaign to reach more people.

“Our goal is to get 1 million North Carolinians more active by 2015, and to get 450,000 to commit in writing to leading a more active lifestyle for at least six months,” says Jodi Hubble, BeActive’s director of development and communication. Tall task for an agency with about a dozen employees. Again, though they don’t plan to do it on their own.

“We plan to form eight regional partnerships like the one we have with ASU,” says Hubble.

In 2005, BeActive and Appalachian State University formed a partnership to help promote active lifestyles throughout the western part of the state. BeActive supplies expertise, programming and some funding primarily through BCBSNC; Appalachian State works with community agencies to promote active living.

“We’ve worked with 75 local organizations, health departments, schools and worksites in 30 counties on physical activity projects,” says Susan Tumbleston, executive director of the BeActive/Appalachian Partnership.

“Right now we’re working on the Chimney Rock State Park Project,” says Tumbleston. ‘We’re working with Rutherford County Hospital, Polk County employees, the Polk Vocational Center and the local health departments to use Chimney Rock as a place to get exercise.” They’re analyzing the park’s trail network to recommend hiking routes, working with the park for a reduced rate on an annual pass, working with employers to spread the word and promote the project.

“That park has over 1,600 steps,” says Tumbleston. “It’s a great Stairmaster.”

The BeActive/Appalachian Partnership has forged various senior-oriented projects (including fitness assessments at senior centers and the Western Carolina Falls Prevention Program aimed at reducing the incidence of seniors falling); created the Kids in Parks Program with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, and worked with the Natural Learning Initiative through N.C. State University’s School of Design to build a natural playground in Boone.

Tumbleston says the Partnership hasn’t tracked how many individuals in the western part of the state have been affected by their programs. She estimates the number of people they have worked with directly — the teachers, health officials and others responsible for taking the programs to the public — at 50,000.

ASU makes an ideal partner with BeActive, says Tumbleston, because “we’re very focused on community outreach, it’s part of our strategic plan, to be of service to the community.”

Hubble says BeActive is busy working on similar partnerships with other schools in the state. She says they hope to have three more partnerships nailed down within 18 months. She says having the programs promoted locally makes them a little more palatable to the local population.

“We have a hard time pushing programs out of Raleigh,” Hubble says of the state capitol. “The local partnerships break down the Raleigh distrust issue.”

Photo: Chimney Rock State Park: One giant Stairmaster (photo courtesy North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation).