Walking group helped rural resident

A member of the walking group, organized by the Peaks to Prairies Primary Care Network says she's healthier as a result of the experience.

Welmoet Bols of rural Olds was one of the first members to join up when the group was created about a year ago. Members meet each Wednesday to walk around the indoor track at the Community Learning Campus from 11 a.m. to noon.

Bols was already working with walking group spokesman Greg Stopanski.

"I just didn't feel good and it didn't go away," she says.

So when Stopanski asked her if she'd be willing to join the group, she agreed.

"I walk a lot anyway because I have two dogs and they don't say ëno' for an answer," Bols says. "I live in the country, so I walk lots ñ around the hayfields and stuff. But that's different walking.

"It's different, because here, you try to walk as fast as you can. I look at the clock and say ëoh, I did do that in three minutes. That's pretty good.' Or ëgee, that's five minutes, that's too long.' In the fields it's very uneven walking. Here, it's nice and smooth," she says.

"It's just one of the things that I'm trying to do to stay as fit as possible; lose some weight. The main thing was breath. I have a heart condition and I just get out of breath easily."

Bols figures she went from being able to do 10 laps of the 250-metre walking track to eventually being able to complete 17. Unfortunately, she suffered health problems again and only recently got back on the track so she's essentially starting all over again.

Bols says one of her favourite aspects of the group -- besides meeting others -- is when they walk in the Olds College wetlands in the warmer months.

"That is such a treat," she says.

"The smells are there from the mulch that they use; the piney stuff. You see the birds, you hear them. It's just lovely to walk there," she says.