The problem with spring cleaning in April is that it is difficult to work up a good cleaning head of steam when it's hailing outside. Read more...

Colin Lee Edenso, 63, died Friday, May 2, 2008, in Anchorage, following a brief illness. He was born June 13,1944, in Ketchikan, and lived all his life in Alaska.

Rebecca Helen Stokes, 40, died May 3, 2008, in Kiowa, Okla. Born Rebecca Helen Searle in Kelso, Wash., on Jan. 14, 1968, she attended Stella Mayfield school in Elgin, Ore., and Schoenbar Middle School in Ketchikan, where she lived from 1981 to 1986.

Marguerite C. "Peg" Jacobson, 89, died April 17, 2008, in Ketchikan.

Clifford "Chegan" John Durgan, 82, died April 20, 2008, in Sitka.

We all like to meet a challenge head-on, but sometimes need encouragement to do so. The National President's Challenge started on Thursday, and Gov. Sarah Palin took up the baton.

She signed up, and according to the registration site, was one of 1,517 Alaskans to do so by Friday afternoon. Six Alaskans registered in the 10-minute period while we were studying the Web site.

It's a fitness challenge, and it doesn't require much except a commitment to be active 30 minutes of activity five days a week during the six weeks of the challenge. For children younger than 18, the bar is higher (and so is the energy supply) - for them, the challenge is to be active for 60 minutes, five days a week. Sign-up lasts through April 3.

"Activity" can mean all sorts of things, not just exercises. It can be those, of course; aerobics, fishing, walking, weight training, yoga, dog-walking and even spring cleaning count, too.

You can sign up through a link offered by the state at www.livewell.alaska.gov, or by going directly to www.presidentschallenge.org. Even if you don't think of yourself as a joiner, the site has useful tools, including activity logs, a body-mass index calculator, and background on the benefits of fitness.

Of course, it's all free. But it's a way to keep track, and read stories of how others get themselves moving to improve their stamina, health and quality of life. What better time than the fervently sought approach of spring to give ourselves the benefit of a new beginning?