Walking for Wellness and So Much More!

Nancy Foss has been a devoted Walker for Wellness from the start.  She wrote this article last fall, but it sums up our walking group so well that it's worth posting now!  For more information and to sign up for Walking for Wellness, visit here. 

FootZone mentors are consummate professionals.

Walking for Wellness is the brainchild of Michelle Poirot and supported and sponsored by St. Charles Cancer Center and the FootZone. The 2014 program, geared for Cancer survivors and their caregivers, was started in March and ran for 18 weeks. We are lovingly and laughingly educated and inspired by Michelle.  Without her energy and caring support, our group would not have been so successful.

Most of us were looking for a structured group in which to find motivation and a way to sustain a workout program involving walking. Little did we know what we really found.  On our first walk we ventured about 25 minutes around Drake Park, and by the end of the first 6 weeks we had approached the 5K mark. All of us were amazed at our progress. We decided to participate in the Heaven Can Wait 5K Run/Walk on June 1st.


 To commemorate our group achievement I came up with this mantra:

Our first 5k at Heaven Can Wait!

We walk, we talk;

We share, we care;

We motivate, we caffeinate;

We walk for wellness and so much more!

Sweet rewards at La Magie.

I think I left out a key ingredient in the success of this program: coffee and socialization after our adventures! It has helped us all to bond and many of us have been here the entire 18 weeks and hope to continue walking together through the summer until Walking for Wellness starts again in the fall. 

We have discovered much about the trails around Bend as we’ve gone on several field trips to expand our range and terrain.  We were joined last spring by Katie Mital who has helped us by focusing our warm up on certain key points such as strength, balance, and core work. Not to mention she’s a fun addition to the group!

In mid-summer, five of us represented our group in the Tour des Chutes first-ever 5K Run/walk. It was hot, but we did the group proud. I hope to chronicle our adventures and also hope to encourage others to join us. Remember we walk for wellness and so much more. See you down the path!