Document text
Mall walkers take it to the streets Asante to expand program to the outdoors By Mark Freeman For the past three years, Stella Bowden and her power-walking friends have faithfully hoofed it past the likes of Meier & Frank and Petland twice a week, gazing at store displays and sharing bad jokes. "We walk four miles in an hour � four laps upstairs, then four laps downstairs," says Bowden, a 71-year-old retired hospital housekeeper from Medford. Last year alone, they gazed and joked their way through 500 miles, earning a T-shirt from the Take a Hike Club that gives folks like Bowden mall-walking mileage credit toward prizes. But the mall has its limitations, says Bowden. "It�s fine when it�s cold," she says. "But I�d rather walk outside." Starting this week, Bowden and her buddies will break out of the mall rut and still log miles toward her next goal � a Take a Hike wrist wallet for those in the 600-mile club. Asante Health System�s popular club now will expand its noncompetitive hiking program beyond the mall so participants can stroll anywhere they please toward winning prizes that many participants say are the carrots they need dangling in front of them to keep pressing on. "I�m a pretty competitive person," says Alecia Wolf, a 47-year-old day-care provider and walking buff from Central Point. "If I have a reward on the mind, I usually try a little bit harder." Rogue Valley Medical Center started the Take a Hike Club as a free community-health promotion more than a decade ago. It targets primarily seniors who can use this low-impact form of exercise to fight ailments such as osteoporosis, stiff joints, heart disease and general atrophy. "For me, walking is a way for me to clear my mind and collect in my head what else I need to accomplish during the day," Wolf says. "But, really, it�s something anybody can do. All you need is a pair of tennis shoes." Participants sign up for the free program and keep track of their own mileage or hours � with their progress rewarded with such prizes as water bottles and T-shirts as they rack up the steps and report them on the honor system. But the hitch has been that only mileage and hours in the mall counted toward the prizes. That effectively locked out potential participants such as Wolf, whose long work days don�t mesh with mall hours so she never signed up. "I couldn�t possibly walk in the mall," she says. "My day starts too early and I�m not retired. "To pigeon-hole people like that," she says, "is not a good thing." Asante managers heard such comments and sensed a need to expand the program beyond the mall. They added three new courses to the mall program � the RVMC Heart Walk course around the Medford hospital, Bear Creek Park in Medford and the All Sports Park near Grants Pass. And participants such as Wolf and Bowden can now receive credit for walking anywhere, provided they keep good records. "People have become so passionate and so fanatic about their walking areas," says Susan Huntley, from Asante�s marketing department. "So we got to thinking, let�s give them credit for their habit, no matter where they�re walking." Asante will hold a kick-off event at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, the first day of spring, inside the mall at the Education Resource Center on the mall�s lower level near Mervyn�s. Taking the program outside was just the ticket for Wolf, who signed up Tuesday and can�t wait to start working toward her first reward � a water bottle after 50 miles. "I signed my husband up as well," Wolf says. "He�s a non-walker, but he�s going to become a walker now." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.