Health Hero Denny Pingeon

Meet Denny Pingeon, Vehicle Maintenance Supervisor at Transit's South Base. At 60 years old, Denny is doing the Seattle to Portland bike ride (202 miles) in one day this July, is hiking and climbing on Mount Rainier, walking and golfing. Denny and his wife are working on their first back yard garden.

Denny’s always been active, but he hasn’t always been so healthy. In the last few years, he’s lost 30 pounds, and more importantly, feels more fit. At 40-something, Denny ate what he wanted knowing he’d burn the calories with his active family. Then the kids grew up and moved away, Denny had two knee surgeries and kept eating what he wanted. A doctor’s visit four years ago was a wake up call.

Denny started working with his health coach on the Healthy Incentives Program. They had a good laugh about the recommended goal weight for his height – Denny told the coach to imagine a fire hydrant - that’s Denny’s body type. Strong but not light. Working with a coach helped Denny stay accountable to someone other than himself. He used the coach to work on goals, exercise more, eat smaller portions, and get more fruits and vegetables in his diet.

The last two years, Denny’s been doing a log of his physical activity for his Healthy Incentives Individual Action Plan. That means his hard work paid off – he’s moved out of moderate risk into the group at low risk for future health concerns. And at 60 years old, he’s strong, active and keeping an eye peeled for the next challenge.

As a manager, Denny hears people talking about the Health Matters programs. He hears his employees talking about fruits and vegetable and teasing one another about donuts for meetings. His employees aren’t tapped into the county’s email system and may not have access to the internet, so Denny sees his role as making sure each employee has the materials and information to make their own health decisions.

Denny’s words of wisdom to other employees is to find an exercise partner. A health partner keeps you motivated and on track. When you want to quit, the partner will push you through. Denny’s health partner is George Stites at the Transit’s Training Center. They’ve included two other transit employees in their activity challenges, Mike “Bucky” Buchanan and Kim Martin. The four of them will ride the STP in one day, and will be doing training climbs of Rainier considering a summit attempt.

The first time Denny did a training ride with George and Kim, they set out for a trip around Lake Washington, about 65 miles. Denny made it around the lake, but not with George and Kim. They had already put in the time to train and Denny was not able to maintain their pace and had to send them off ahead. After logging over 600 miles of bike time, Denny feels much more ready for the STP now. Between logging miles on the bike seat for STP, walking, hiking, golf and gardening, Denny stays very active.

All this activity keeps Denny at the top of his game. And after 26 years at the county, Denny needs to be at the top of his game - supervising the employees at Transit’s South Base Vehicle Maintenance shop requires quick wit, a sharp smile and a good sense of humor. It helps if you’re willing to ride the “South Base Taxi” around the yard – an old yellow upright bike complete with dented fenders and fat tires.