Crowds walk and talk together at new exercise group
THERE was certainly an air of ‘joie de vivre’ amongst the 160 or so-odd walkers that gathered outside Garvey’s Supervalu in Castleisland on Saturday morning for what was the first meeting in a six-week exercise and mental health campaign being run by the store.
With the main aim of the programme the promotion of positive mental health while getting out and about in a group, meeting friends and neighbours and members of the community, this mission certainly seemed to be accomplished from the off as, wrapped in a colourful assortment of wooly hats, jackets and gloves, the ‘get up and go’ attitude of the walkers was clear to see. They posed for photographs, chatted amicably with fellow attendees and awaited the briefing from organisers ahead of the start time of 11am.
“The day went very well, we had a great turn-out of walkers and, from the feedback that we received on the day, everyone seemed to really enjoy it,” organiser John Paul Curtin told The Kerryman on Monday.
“We went down by the Riverwalk here in Castleisland and then did two laps of the park before we headed back to the start at Garvey’s; the sense of community spirit amongst everyone was wonderful to see.”
“The programme is going to run every Saturday morning from 11am for the next six weeks and to have a slightly different angle than your typical January get fit events, we are going to doing different things every week; we have Claire Scanlon from Operation Transformation joining us next week and I think in week three we are going to have Dr Ailis Brosnan, a life and fitness coach, joining us.”
“We want to try and do different things every week to help keep people incentivised to come back every week; we are offering free high-intensity circuit classes and weigh-ins for all participants with R&R Fitness every Tuesday night from 8 to 9pm,” he finished.