hypothetical question

If there was a group walk in your city on Sunday afternoons about 2pm
would you walk with the group? The distance is 5K. It is a loop on a
hike/bike trail. The trail goes down one side of a small lake, crosses
a bridge to the other side, and goes down the other side back to the
start. It is stroller friendly for those with children. At the half
way point there is a playground where the kids can play before heading
back. There is free parking available at the start. There are
restrooms and water fountains.

The reason I am asking is because I am trying to organize just such a
group walk and I can't get any participants. I managed to get articles
about the group walk in the local paper twice. I sent flyers to
several day cares. I made up 200 coloring books with the information
for some daycares to give to the kids to have them color and take home.
I got the library to agree to put a flyer into each childs bag when
they checked out books. I got the grade school to give out flyers to
the students in P.E. class.

We have met to walk twice since I did all this. The first week I had 3
adults and 3 kids. The second week I had 4 adult and 4 kids. This
weekend will be our 3rd group walk. At this rate I may have 5 adults
and 5 kids.

With so many children overweight, you'd think parents would be eager to
get them to exercise. Any suggestions on what I might do to get people
motivated to come walk with us?

The coloring book is online at:
http://walktx.org/dieKinderWalkabout/dieKinderColorBook.pdf

walktx

Have you considered trying it in the morning, so people can do it as a start
to the day rather than an interruption/alternative to whatever other plans
they may want to make, as well as not competing with lunchtime scheduling.

Most road races are early in the morning on weekends. I doubt they'd get as
big a turnout if they were at 2pm. People are just too busy & have too many
other things they need or want to do. Most Volksmarches also offer a morning
start, though they don't require everyone to start at once & of course are
untimed -- they usually have a start window of e.g. 8-1 & some have finish
deadlines (I haven't done any lately but that's the sort of thing I
remember). See if there's a club near you -- www.ava.org -- that you can
ally with -- or just join & talk up.
bj

"walktx" <Eee93.TakeThisOut@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1147921550.595216.72080@j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> If there was a group walk in your city on Sunday afternoons about 2pm
> would you walk with the group? The distance is 5K. It is a loop on a
> hike/bike trail. The trail goes down one side of a small lake, crosses
> a bridge to the other side, and goes down the other side back to the
> start. It is stroller friendly for those with children. At the half
> way point there is a playground where the kids can play before heading
> back. There is free parking available at the start. There are
> restrooms and water fountains.
>
> The reason I am asking is because I am trying to organize just such a
> group walk and I can't get any participants. I managed to get articles
> about the group walk in the local paper twice. I sent flyers to
> several day cares. I made up 200 coloring books with the information
> for some daycares to give to the kids to have them color and take home.
> I got the library to agree to put a flyer into each childs bag when
> they checked out books. I got the grade school to give out flyers to
> the students in P.E. class.
>
> We have met to walk twice since I did all this. The first week I had 3
> adults and 3 kids. The second week I had 4 adult and 4 kids. This
> weekend will be our 3rd group walk. At this rate I may have 5 adults
> and 5 kids.
>
> With so many children overweight, you'd think parents would be eager to
> get them to exercise. Any suggestions on what I might do to get people
> motivated to come walk with us?
>
> The coloring book is online at:
> http://walktx.org/dieKinderWalkabout/dieKinderColorBook.pdf
>
> walktx
>