Regular exercise is the key to a healthy lifestyle and walking is one of the best ways to keep fit. The Grossmont Mall Walkers is a free fitness program for adults sponsored by the Sharp Grossmont Senior Resource Center in cooperation with Grossmont Center, offering a convenient and accessible way to exercise, and socialize for people of all fitness levels. Every Saturday, the
program offers a free exercise class at 9 a.m. inside the Grossmont Center Food Court with a friendly and knowledgeable instructor leading those who participate through gentle exercises that can improve balance and increase strength.
Mall Walker leader, Senior Exercise Specialist from Sharp Senior Resource Center Daphne Miller said that this weekly event is not only free, but open to anyone that wants to participate. Miller said the program started around 37 years ago as an answer to a cardiologist who had patients who needed rehab and public walking was a great program for them.
“It started at the mall and in the very beginning it had quite a variety of sponsors,” she said. “The hospital sponsored it for a while, then lost its funding. Grossmont Adult School picked it up and that is when I started working with them. They lost their funding so Sharp picked it up again a few years later.
“Basically, we do social activities and walking, and we do a little bit of warm up,” she said. “When the program first started, they had a person who worked about 20 hours a week and they did a lot of social events. Some of those original members are still alive so they did a lot more social events like walking down at Seaport Village, going out to eat. It has changed over the years. We check our miles at the malls. Walkers keep track of their miles of where they walk elsewhere. Some people walk out at Lake Murray, downtown La Mesa, and all over the place. We do education. We have guest speakers throughout the year, whether we talk about balance, flexibility, systolic anterior motion, different programs that affect older adults.”
Miller said they meet at the food court Saturday mornings, with two classes, one at 8 a.m. and another at 9 a.m.
“We encourage socialization with people having people to walk with,” she said. “Some people just do the exercise warm up and other people will take off and walk with each other. We create a sense of community. We walk over at Briercrest Park, we have a Christmas party, we do community service, we do Meals on Wheels on holidays, to try to connect people socialize and have that connection with another person. When you become an older adult, many of these people are quite older and single, so it is nice to have some likeminded people to exercise and have fun with. It is a lot of fun with this group. I took it over 15 years ago, so I have been doing this since then. Anyone can come. You do not have to be part of the Sharp Medical Group. It is free and it is open to whatever fits your lifestyle. You can come every week, or if you can only do it once a month. We like it when they come every week because they get to know each other, like each other, and it is good for their health. Walking is such a wonderful exercise that most people can do, and it has so many benefits health wise.”
Walker Lois Pasquale, from La Mesa, said she retired in 2007 and about a year later and decided to find an exercise group that included walking because she loves it. She said this program is so close to her that she can walk to it.
“Daphne had just started as the shepherd for that group, it seemed like a great group of people to exercise with, and they would do social things as well,” she said. “It is a good way to meet people in the community, plus it is health wise being a senior citizen to learn balance, or things that you might need personally in your health life. It has been great for me health wise, remaining active and keeping my strength up. At 76 years old, when I tell people how old I am, they say, ‘you are not.’”
Pasquale said she was very athletic when she was young and wanted to keep that agility.
“I know I cannot do the things I did when I was young, but I wanted to keep up with something that would keep my strength up, walk correctly, keep my balance, and even a way to fall correctly. When I was younger, taking skiing lessons, someone taught me that if you are going to fall, there is a correct way to fall without hurting yourself. Daphne is so well as helping people individually as well as a group. She provides information. If you need weights, resistance bands, she can get those things for you. She is very good at keeping us interested in each other as we walk with each other, but we also cross paths during the rest of the week, so we see each other all the time. This program is outstanding, and Daphne has done a wonderful job.”
Pasquale said Miller has done an outstanding job of mixing the exercise and social benefits of this program ongoing.
Bill and Isobel Chism of La Mesa just celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary and both retired together 27 years ago. Bill Chism said it is because of Mall Walkers that they are both in very good shape now.
“Within the first year of our retirement, this strange group the Mall Walkers, we went to see what it was so it would keep us off the street,” he said. “The first time, we were not sure that we were willing to give up Saturday mornings, but then we got to know people and it just blossomed on us. I do not know how we heard about it the first time, but we are so glad that we did. It has been a very important part of our lives now.”
Bill Chism said along with walking, getting to know people is a vital part.
“We meet people, find out where they live, and until COVID came along it was much more social,” he said. “We would take the train up to Oceanside, trolly trips to Old Town San Diego, and COVID, like many other things, screwed it up. We hope now that in the near future that we will continue to do things away from the center so that once again sociability and friendships will grow.”
Chism said that they just lost a longtime walker recently, Marge Dyke.
“A week ago, we went, and they recognized the Mall Walkers at her celebration of life,” he said. “She was a great part of it, even at 102. I liked her personally because we thought very much alike. We would get together and try to solve some of the world’s problems. She was also a part of the Lions Club, something else that we had in common.”
He said with the exercises that you do not have to be a pro at flexibility and bending, and that you do the best that you can.
“People improve,” he said. “I do things I used to never be able to do. With Daphne, you never know what you are going to do be doing. She is a fantastic leader. The other thing that we really enjoy is at Christmas time, we bag over 50 bags of goodies for Meals on Wheels. We have gotten great compliments because we fill them with personal things, write notes, and it is just the neatest things, especially for our newcomers who have never done it before. That is an annual event that we will not pass up. We get together socially a couple of times a year. We celebrate people’s mileage. This is a very neat group of unique people, and if anyone there is in need, there is somebody in our group that can help fulfill that need, whatever it might be.”
Chism said that the program has such a sense of community, when someone does not show up for a couple of weeks, they start wondering why, and they try and find out why they are not showing up.
