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Registration Now Open for Walking Challenge

Published on April 29, 2026

In: Health & Wellness

Registration for the 10th annual Homer Steps Up community walking challenge (May 4 -31) opens April 15 on HomerStepsUp.com. Coordinated by South Peninsula Hospital, with support from numerous partnering agencies, the yearly challenge is designed to motivate the community to engage in more movement to help improve overall health as well as provide a fun, interactive community event as Homer transitions into summer.

The program will be hosted on the same online platform and app as last year. Participants can sync their smartphone or wearable fitness tracker for easy tracking, or there are options to manually upload steps from a pedometer. Last year, 667 individuals across 68 teams participated, leading to 177,128,943 steps logged as a community.

Thanks to support from South Peninsula Hospital Foundation, all individual participants reaching a minimum of 7,500 daily steps will be entered in to win weekly Homer Bucks.  Teams of five+ participants will be ranked based on the average of their members’ steps (not a total sum), and the top three winning teams will get the opportunity to designate cash donations to a local non-profit of their choice. 

As part of the Homer Steps Up Challenge, SPH is extending sponsorship of free weekly indoor walks at the SPARC on Mondays from 11:45 am – 12:45 pm through June. Starting April 20 and going through May, there will also be a Homer Steps Up registration and help desk available, as well as free blood pressure screenings.

There are also multiple community events happening throughout May that can help participants reach their steps goals: Kachemak Bay Running Club meets at Bishops Beach on Wednesdays, the Shorebird Festival’s Migration Run 5k on May 10, South Peninsula Behavioral Health Services walk-a-thon on May 28, and Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic’s satellite Alaska Run for Women event on May 30. 

Complete information is at www.homerstepsup.com

News & Updates

  • Hospital Hosts Community Information Session and Q&A

    South Peninsula Hospital will host a virtual community information session and Q&A on Thursday, July 30, at 2:00 p.m. This will be an online event, open to all community members, and will offer an opportunity to learn more about hospital governance and operations, and ask questions and provide feedback to hospital leadership. 

    Ryan Smith, CEO of South Peninsula Hospital and Aaron Weisser, President of the Board of Directors, will address questions and concerns raised recently in the community, followed by unlimited time for questions and comments from the online audience.

    Topics will include the roles of hospital leadership, the board of directors, and medical staff; how the hospital is structured as a nonprofit hospital and contracted by the Kenai Peninsula Borough; how decisions are made to support quality, safety, and access to care; how patient concerns and grievances are addressed and how community voices can help shape healthcare on the southern peninsula. 

  • Farewell Celebration on July 23 for Dr. Brent Adcox, Local Orthopedic Surgeon

    South Peninsula Hospital invites the community to join us in celebrating Dr. Brent Adcox’s 15 years at South Peninsula Orthopedics and wish him farewell before he returns to the Lower 48. The celebration will be at Homer Seaplane Base (1310 Lake Shore Drive) from 5:00 – 8:00 pm on Thursday, July 23rd.

  • South Peninsula Hospital Celebrates 70th Anniversary with Community Party

    South Peninsula Hospital is turning 70 in July, and to celebrate, we’re hosting a celebration for the public at the SPH campus from 4:00 - 7:00 pm on Thursdaym, July 2. Community members and visitors are welcome to enjoy a free picnic dinner, listen to live music, take a tour of the hospital, browse the SPH “hall of history,” and check out some visiting emergency vehicles.

  • The 10K Spit Run & Cosmic Hamlet Half Marathon Returns June 27

    The 50th annual Annual Homer Spit Run, which consists of the 10k to the Bay, Cosmic Hamlet Half
    Marathon, and the 1 Mile Youth (Kids and Family) Run, will be held on Saturday, June 27th.
    Registration is open online for both timed races at KachemakBayRunningClub.org, and these races
    benefit local youth running programs.

  • SPH Urgent Care Now Open for Walk-In Care

    South Peninsula Hospital is expanding access to same-day care with the opening of a walk-in Urgent Care clinic on June 1. Located at 4201 Bartlett Street, in the same building as the Family Care Clinic, Urgent Care will be open Monday through Saturday from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. No appointments are necessary, and patients will have access to on-site labs and X-rays. Urgent Care will be staffed by Carrie Warren, FNP-C, who is moving from the Family Care team, and Kara Zimmerman, PA-C, who recently moved to Homer.

  • Invitation to Bid

    South Peninsula Hospital seeks a qualified contractor for development of a gravel parking lot at 4135 Hohe St., Homer, AK. Work includes site prep, grading, drainage, and compacted gravel installation. The complete RFP can be found here or by request.  

  • End of Life Decision Making - recording now available

    Thank you to the many community members who attended our free educational presentation, “End of Life Decision Making,” this spring! This event was originally scheduled for Fall 2025, and we appreciate everyone’s flexibility with the rescheduling. We were honored to have Homer Medical Center’s Dr. Giulia Tortora, local estate planning attorney Lindsay Wolter, and Hospice of Homer death doula Morgan Laffert lead this important conversation. Together, they covered key aspects of end-of-life planning, including living wills, medical power of attorney, legal and medical decision-making, and emotional considerations.

  • Registration Now Open for Walking Challenge

    Registration for the 10th annual Homer Steps Up community walking challenge (May 4 -31) opens April 15 on HomerStepsUp.com. Coordinated by South Peninsula Hospital, with support from numerous partnering agencies, the yearly challenge is designed to motivate the community to engage in more movement to help improve overall health as well as provide a fun, interactive community event as Homer transitions into summer.

  • Welcome First Baby of 2026

    Baby girl River Marie Burdick was born on Sunday, January 4, 2026 at 3:55pm at South Peninsula Hospital, earning her the bragging rights of first baby delivered there in 2026. River weighed six pounds, 10 ounces, and was 19.5 inches in length. She is the first child of Amanda and Aaron Burdick of Homer, Alaska.

  • SPH Submits Letters of Interest to Rural Health Transformation Program

    South Peninsula Hospital recently submitted Letters of Interest to the State of Alaska Rural Health Transformation Program, a five-year federal grant program to improve health care in rural areas across all fifty states. These letters are the first round of submissions, and are some of nearly 1,800 which were submitted from locations across Alaska. We expect to learn sometime in April, 2026 if any of our submittals are invited to complete full applications.

  • SPH welcomes two new board members

    South Peninsula Hospital Board of Directors appointed two new members to the board and elected new officers at their December, 2025 board meeting. Jim Anderson and Ken Ciccoli, both of Homer, are newly appointed to three-year terms.