East Lansing mayor Victor Loomis beside walking advocate Jon Stanton join community members in the Blues Family Health Walk Sunday morning to kick off the East Lansing Farmer’s Market. Stanton lost 230 pounds through walking and dietary changes. Both Loomis and Stanton said a few words of welcome to open the event. Mackenzie Mohr/The State News
As a crowd of vendors and customers gathered Sunday to end the East Lansing Farmers Market, another crowd was geared up nearby to take part in the two-mile Blues Family Health Walk with the Mayor.
The walk, which began and ended at Valley Court Park, 400 Hillside Court, was an incentive event sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to promote healthy lifestyles.
Participants had the chance to walk with East Lansing Mayor Vic Loomis while completing two laps around the one-mile course, as well as earn a $5 coupon toward any farmers market purchases.
Loomis said the goal of the walk was to build community through fitness before the farmers market began.
“It was a lot of fun; it was very invigorating,” he said. “We had a good turnout, we had a lot of fun and it gives you a real sense of community as you’re walking through (the neighborhoods).”
Shelley DuFort, senior community liaison for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, said the walk was part of a series of healthy activities in the Lansing area aimed at getting people in the community out and moving. She said local elected officials usually are asked to join the walkers, and Loomis was “pleased” to be a part of the event.
“The one thing I think is really beneficial is we get a lot of people going, ‘Oh, I’ve lived here my whole life, but I’ve never really thought that all I had to do was step outside and walk around a couple times,’” she said.
DuFort estimated that 200 people participated in the walk.
Among them was Jon Stanton, a walking advocate who lost more than 230 pounds in two years by walking regularly and eating healthy foods.
“I know how awful it is to live life as a severely obese person,” he said. “It’s not a pleasant thing physically, emotionally or mentally, by any means.”
Stanton said the relaxed pace of a community walk motivated him to get out and exercise, and he hoped more people would view the walk as an incentive to start exercising more frequently.
“We explored some really unique neighborhoods here in East Lansing while we were doing this,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to see more of the town, and that’s the kind of thing that, over time, will help the person get the bug and start dong these kinds of things.”
Grand Ledge, Mich., resident Janet Baker said she enjoyed meeting people on the walk that she might not have been able to meet otherwise.
“It’s a great way to start off the market, and I think it probably got more people down here than would have come in the first place,” she said.
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