Isles’ Trenton Spirit Walk gets families and communities
outside and walking together. The project develops communities of walkers by motivating faith and civic organizations — where people naturally congregate — to encourage their members to walk and to create easily
accessible walking loops.
Check out the Spirit Walk page on Facebook.
Isles supports community groups in their efforts to:
- Organize regular walking groups, coordinated by a walking captain who plans weekly, bi-weekly or monthly walking activities and training for each group.
- Educate youth and parents through monthly Spirit Walk workshops that promote healthy lifestyles and self-reliance through health screenings, seminars and fitness clinics.
- Plan and create walking loops and trails in nearby city neighborhoods and parks that provide a safe way to walk, give walkers a sense of place, and connect walkers to places of worship, parks and historic sites throughout the city.
- Reminding people of the connection between their bodies and their spiritual well-being.
Trenton Spirit Walk participants benefit because:
- Exercise makes them feel better and improves their health.
- Walkers notice their surroundings and often find ways to improve their communities.
- People connect to one another in public, thereby strengthening community bonds and developing communal leadership.
Also under the umbrella of the Spirit Walk, organizations host monthly walking events at Quaker Bridge Mall, a local indoor mall, and Isles hosts the annual Trenton Spirit Walk each May, where over 500 people from throughout Trenton meet in Cadwalader Park for a fun-filled day of exercise (in either a one- or a three-mile walk), inspiration, encouragement and reinforcement.
Isles is also partnering with ShapingNJ in working to prevent obesity and other related chronic diseases in New Jersey.