By Laura Mazur
Community Post
In efforts to get active and healthy, Joint Township District Memorial Hospital, in St. Marys, challenged local people last Wednesday to walk a mile.

“It's been a fairly good turn-out,” said Anne Larger, Community Outreach coordinator for JTDMH. “The only thing that has kept numbers down is it being cloudy this morning, but it was a very good turn-out.”
With the walk happening in St. Marys, Larger hopes to start such a walk throughout the Grand Lake Health System in Celina and Wapakoneta.
This is the fourth year for the walk, which is actually the Healthy Ohio Fitness Walk. The walk is an inaugural one for the hospital to be involved, however.
Healthy Ohio is a state government effort to get more people active, with a goal of more than 100,000 Ohioans walking one mile during the course of the day or over the span of the week.
The idea for the walk locally came from Neal Brady, executive director for the Miami and Erie Canal Corridor Association, who told Larger about the statewide walk.
“We're hoping people will step out to better health,” he said.
Brady additionally said that many people who walked the Miami and Erie Canal Towpath last week hadn't known it was right beside the union hall before the walk. Others seemed to be routine walkers.
Groups of walkers at businesses, organizations and individually joined to walk in conjunction with National Employee Health and Fitness Day, walking during the lunch hour and even earlier in the day starting at 6 a.m.
“I'm employed with the hospital and I've been walking ever since I got my knees operated on n November,” said Jake Fry, of St. Marys.
Mother and son duo Sharon and Joey Schnell, of New Bremen, also joined the walk.
“I work at the hospital, heard about the walk and thought it would be fun to do,” said Sharon.