Active Ottumwa Podcast Episode 4

Hannah Shultz: Welcome to a Community on the Move: The Story of Active Ottumwa. Active Ottumwa is a community-based research project that encourages all adults to be more active. Ottumwa community members, and the University of Iowa use the latest research to design this project. The research project for Active Ottumwa has concluded that the Active Ottumwa program continues under the leadership of Hy-Vee of Ottumwa and with the positive support of community organizations. In this series, we’re learning from people involved in the project about what worked well, what they learned along the way, and the impact Active Ottumwa had on the community. Over the next 10 episodes, we will talk about many aspects of the Active Ottumwa project to learn about the successes, challenges, lessons learned, pride, and humility that went into this project. My name is Hannah Schultz, and I am the host for this series, and I’m learning about this program along with you. I work at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, but I have not been affiliated with Active Ottumwa until we started planning this podcast series. Working on this series has been a joy. I’ve been impressed every step of the way by the passion, commitment, dedication, and persistence of all involved in this project. And I am very excited to share this with you. One of the many reasons I’ve been impressed by this project and I’m so excited to share it with you is the active participation and inclusion of people representing many different communities, organizations, and interests in Ottumwa. The focus of Active Ottumwa was on physical activity, which came out of a community survey highlighting that this was a need for the community. The project used community resources to promote and support active living and physical activity across the community.

Today I’m continuing the conversation with the Active Ottumwa team. Active Ottumwa was a five-year initiative in the southeast Iowa town of Ottumwa. In the last episode, we talked with Twila about being a Physical Activity Leader, which we often call a PAL. So today we’re going to talk with some of the other pals. And before we get too far in, I’d like to introduce who’s joining us. So Mary, would you introduce yourself to our listeners.

Mary Hart: Okay, I’m Mary Hart. And I started teaching Tai Chi for the Active Ottumwa group.

Hannah Shultz: All right, thank you, Mary. How about Betty, could you introduce yourself?

Betty Panlaqui: I’m Beth Panlaqui, a retired assistant principal in the Philippines, a native of the Philippine Islands. Before we became part of the Active Ottumwa, we have been physically active since we came here in the United States in 1998. In the year 2017, we become a part of the Active Ottumwa as the PAL leaders through the motivation and leadership of Sandy Berto.

Hannah Shultz: And you said we, so could Remi also introduce himself?

Remi Panlaqui: I am Remi Panlaqui. I am a retired Methodist pastor. I am active in doing some work. At my leisure time at home I like gardening, and other household chores.

Hannah Shultz: Next, we have Blaire Siems. Blaire, could you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Blaire Siems: Yeah. Hello, I’m Blaire Siems I am I work for Indian Hills Community College Foundation. I’m the director here. I led a brisk walking group with Active Ottumwa. We would walk it was about four miles and about an hour and 15 minutes. So we were very fast paced group. And I had a really great group of women that that joined me throughout that, and I was trying to think of how long I let it and I don’t know, Sandy may be able to tell you I think it was maybe two years ago, it might not have been that long. But it was a while ago. So I was trying to, trying to remember that. And then I also served on the advisory committee for a little while as well.

Hannah Shultz: And last but certainly not least, we have Joe Slaymaker. Joe, could you introduce yourself.

Joe Slaymaker: I’m Joe Slaymaker. I’m a retired medical technologist. I’m 73 years old. We, my husband, and I have been angels for square dancing, and we help them learn the moves with the two-hour class. It’s about 10 nights, then we get to the whole course. And then we repeat.

Hannah Shultz: Wow, I hadn’t heard about dancing classes like that yet. So that’s fun. And we of course have our Active Ottumwa regulars Becky and Sandy with us today. Becky Bucklin works at the University of Iowa College of Public Health Prevention Research Center, and she has managed many aspects of the Active Ottumwa project from her place in Iowa City. And Sandy Berto was the on the ground field coordinator for Active Ottumwa in Ottumwa. So thank you both for being with us again today, as well.

We started the conversation asking each of our guests what their experience was as Physical Activity Leaders.

Joe Slaymaker: I helped teach the lessons, we tried to make it very sociable. The square dancing is a really a thinking thing. And that they have to learn to not only concentrate on what the caller is saying is active, he’s moving. They can’t stress that out about anything else because they won’t learn. And there’s no drinking allowed, or smoking allowed, because we’re usually in a school setting. And what’s more, you can’t concentrate. When you’re doing those things.

Betty Panlaqui: You know, I said, we need some walkers going to the Quincy Place Mall. We do the walking every Tuesday and Thursday, from eight o’clock to nine o’clock in the morning. In the early spring. And late part of fall, some of the walkers go to the they walk to the Ottumwa Greater Park. There are adults walking in the mall, they use their post walkers, and they use their cane. I walked with them and had some conversation regarding or so many issues in life. And I enjoy walking with them too. Besides walking, we also joined the water aerobics, we also join the Tai Chi, and the square dancing. And this physical activities are not new to me. We have been doing this activity since we came here in the United States, doing some this physical activities like walking, doing the yoga and other more. You know, I still use Active Ottumwa for some of my Filipino friends, our neighbors, to our church members. Actually, I introduced this to our pastor, because he is new in our church is only one year, he came here last July. So I introduced this activity to him. And he is really very eager about this activity in the community. In case you’re in our church, he wants to know some of the activities and in the community. And I told him the Active Ottumwa is more one activity we do for the community.

Mary Hart: It was like November of 2016. I had been volunteering, teaching Tai Chi at the Y and I got certified in the program and certified with CPR. And the girl who was head to the program from the University of Iowa, asked the activities or wellness director at the Y if she could have a couple of people from the Y participate as PALs. And they asked me to do it. And I figured nobody would be interested. But I said okay, fine. I’ll try it. And we met in the office. The first probably first couple months, we met in the office till we got too big of a group but the first day I was there, the office girl and another man were the only two people there. And I think the next week, my, I dragged my friend with me. We have three people there. And then I think, you know, then Sandy came on board I think, and she was like better at getting publicity out like what was offered. And people would come in to try it. And they, we got a really good group going and we’re with hospital now, of course, you’re not now. But anyway, it’s like people of all abilities and ages are in there. You’re not restricted by like, what you can do, you know. Tai Chi is, it’s physical, mental focus, it’s social. And I think that’s why, you know, there’s a larger group of friends that come up every Saturday, and they enjoy it. But they’re also older people with some disabilities and this helps them. And it’s just, it’s something that I really enjoy doing because it’s good for me too. It’s a good, it’s a good long-awaited exercise, I tried to go to as many of the other activities as I can. I like the walking groups, there are a lot of activities we have that we don’t have anymore. There was a yoga class, there was a dance class, and there was a stretch class. And, you know I did, hope that some more young guys would get involved in and start these classes again, but Betty and Remi were so loyal to come to Tai Chi and till Remi got hurt, and I really miss them. You know, I hope there’s some way we can get them back. But anyway, that’s pretty much, it is a really inclusive class, because like I say, there are all abilities in there. And there are all ages, and some of them that come in there I fear that’s their only social contact they have in a week. So you don’t think about it, but it is and at the same time, it’s relaxing and soothing, you know.

Sandy Berto: Mary’s Tai Chi Class was the benefactor of our oldest Active Ottumwa participant. And she was 89, who came to Mary’s class. She came with her daughter and came several times. So we’re quite proud of that.

Blaire Siems: We, when we started out, I actually was on the advisory committee first. And we were trying to get some more PALs and said, really any activity that you do, and I don’t, I don’t really exercise like I should. There’s, there’s nothing I really do regularly other than walk, I like walking. So I said I would put together a group. And really it started out. And really it continued as being individuals that I worked with. So in the past, I worked at US Bank, and we had a lot of women that participated that were in that industry. So there are multiple branches around Ottumwa. So it was kind of nice because this was a little thing for them to get together and see each other every week. So we didn’t realize I think in the beginning how brisk we were walking until we started kind of measuring, using like our Fitbit and stuff actually how far we were going so. And in we were going pretty far in a very short time period. So that’s when I guess we kind of decided I guess we’re a brisk walking group. So we mostly would participate, we have a really great trail system around Ottumwa. So that’s what we would utilize for most of the time. And then of course, in the winter, or if there were weather issues, we would go into the mall. So but it was great because it was every Monday, six o’clock. So it was kind of an after-work thing. And yeah, it was primarily the same group of women. But it was it was nice to see all of them and catch up with all of them. And, of course, anybody who is welcome to join us.

Becky Bucklin: Blaire was our first social network PALs. She was identified by her peers. She’s identified by her peers, as someone who would be a really good PAL. And she was our first like social network PAL that actually agreed to do a walking group.

Blaire Siems: I mean, it was a lot of fun. And I, I don’t know what it’s a walking group. So I use leading loosely, I was just the one to coordinate it all. And get them started. But once we got that core group, if there were times obviously I would travel for work, or if I wasn’t feeling well, or had a meeting or whatever, and I couldn’t be there, any one of the other women would take over and lead it. So each of us really kind of stepped up when we needed to make sure that it still took place. And then I think Brandi Vanderpool was one of the women in my group and she later went on to lead her own group.

Hannah Shultz: All of these Physical Activity Leaders were committed to Active Ottumwa for years, so I was curious how they got people to their classes and how they kept them coming back.

Joe Slaymaker: We’ve been getting lessons every year. For years, we’ve actually been in square dancing for 20 years, and have participated in lessons. It was nice to have Active Ottumwa help us advertise that. And so they’ve been a nice support group, they helped us find a place. Well, a place free to dance at. And they did advertising, which was something that we hadn’t been doing. And they had other contacts that we didn’t have previously. Because it’s such a social thing. And it does take some time to learn in sequence, the steps, and things. Word of mouth has been probably our best bet. People that are dancing and get enthusiastic about it, are the ones that are best advertisers.

Betty Panlaqui: And, you know, these are walkers, these are walkers going to the mall, or active in their physical activity of walking, there are regular walkers. What is most challenging part to me, is how to convince them to find their names in the time scape. Sometimes, they do want to, they don’t want to find their names. There are those workers to read really don’t want to sign. But I tell them, it’s okay. As long as you are walking in the mall and doing this physical activity. It’s good.

Mary Hart: I had taken other volunteering classes at the Y. Only probably a couple of years before that. So I had been doing that at the Y. And I’m a retired teacher. Anyway, so I did teach for 30 years, German in English. But, you know, the Tai Chi was new. In that big of a group, leading that big of a group is definitely new, because we don’t get that many people at the Y doing Tai Chi. Yeah, I have been doing it for a couple of years. I became certified and took over for a gentleman who left the state. So, sometimes I catch myself, you know, with the Tai Chi class, that sometimes you keep doing the countdown and I’ll find myself gesturing and shouting. I get caught up in teaching the moves and it’s like, Mary calm down, it’s just Tai Chi.

Blaire Siems: Yeah, I mean, we push it out a lot on social media. But honestly, what it ultimately came down to was, I guess my circle of influence. The people that I talked to, was friends with the people I worked with, were the people who would show up regularly and be a part of the group. So and I know that’s different for each PAL who would come into what group but that’s, to me, that’s what seemed to work really well for my group. Because I think a lot of it was because of how quickly we walked. It was I mean; it would be difficult for some individuals to keep up with us. And then it was also that social piece. I mean, these were individuals who knew one another. So it just it made it easier, I think and then again, just because if there was a day I wasn’t there someone else could take over and we were pretty close-knit group. But definitely that’s what seemed to work well for me was that circle of influence with people that I that I worked with primarily.

Mary Hart: With me, I became dependent on Sandy. And the publicity that she got out from her office, the Facebook, and the flyers. And the convention things that were held at Bridgeview, from time to time where she was. And the courier doing schedules as long as you know, that was basically it. And then I would tell people, why in my classes to get, that there were free classes.

Joe Slaymaker: And the square dancing. Often we would pull our square dancers from people that knew more about it to their families. We talked to Bridgeview and asked about an advertising to their Visitor Center. And we were that was something we were thinking about. But unless you actually go to a convention to see the dancing, or didn’t know what it’s about, it’s really hard to get new people.

Hannah Shultz: One of the fun things about doing these interviews is experiencing the amount of community connectedness and trust that the different people and groups involved in the project have for one another. The PALs supported one another by sharing schedules, promoting each other’s classes, and sometimes attending each other’s classes.

Mary Hart: I try to go to as many different ones as I can as other people’s right now they not happening, well except the walking groups. And of course, my husband won’t go to the square dance show, or I would be right there. And I try to, I try to do the mall walking whenever I can. And in the winter, and hot weather. I haven’t really, really wanted to go to the park because I’m not a very good walker, my hips don’t let me do that. Now I’ve, I tried to support as many of the other ones as I could, except for the water aerobics one, I don’t, I don’t go to that one. But I tried to support every, and in fact Peggy Wixom’s walking group, I tried to walk with her as much as I could, because she and her husband always came to Tai Chi.

Blaire Siems: I think I do and did a very good job of promoting events, again, like within my own social network. When Active Ottumwa would send the calendars out, I would make sure that my workplace has them and that they’re promoted. I had a lot of people ask me about the swim group that Mary Lou put together. So I feel like I sent a lot of people her way. It actually her and I got to know each other pretty well. I know Sandy would pull the PALs together regularly. And I got to know Mary Lou very well. And she’s helped me in some other projects around town. So I think we did a pretty good job of promoting each other’s events, whether it was on social media or otherwise.

Sandy Berto: Well, I think from my perspective, Hannah, one of the biggest things was not only the camaraderie between the PALs, and not only sharing by attending each other’s classes, but I think they supported the whole organization of Active Ottumwa. Just so enormously, I know that Mary and Peggy and Wayne, and Twila all came to like the Senior Expo. I also know that there were PALs at the Home and Garden Show. I remember I wasn’t even in attendance, the weekend that we had the Oktoberfest. We were able to have one of the big banners and my dear husband talked about contributing relationships to everything, made a big wooden dowel holder to hold the banners, so a couple of PALs to hold it on each end. And this was in addition to Garrett and the YMCA’s bus that was part of our, our pre parade activity. And I remember Betty coming in and tying 1000 pair of green shoelaces. I actually have a photo of her still smiling beautifully after she tied all of those for us, because we wanted to make sure that everybody had a pair of shoelaces, and that one lace just wasn’t wasted by itself. And I also remember that Remi said one of his very favorite things to do was to participate in the Oktoberfest parade. And then you even toss in how most of the pals if their schedules permitted it, were to come and celebrate each other not only monthly at our PALS lunches, but then also at our annual PALs dinner. And you might say, Oh, well, that was just a sit-down dinner. No, we had balloons, we had glitter. We had awards with people’s names on it. Everybody was announced and applauded. We took group photos afterwards. And then we also took a walk together to just promote Active Ottumwa. And whether or not people had on their green t-shirts, or were dressed up nicely whatever, we had fun, and we couldn’t have done it without the pals pure and simple.

Betty Panlaqui: Another activity that the Active Ottumwa participated in was the International Festival, I think the activity to more participated in that. The International Festival which was done in last of September in the main street. Yeah, so there are some activities that were done there. The Filipino groups, they dance and sing there, the Hispanic group, and other groups.

Hannah Shultz: As we heard a few minutes ago, many of the PALs hadn’t taught group exercise classes before. They shared a bit about what was challenging about getting started. A couple times in today’s episode, Betty mentions people being hesitant to fill in the forms. The form she’s referring to are some basic intake forms that allow the researchers to count how many people participate, how often they came back, and what sorts of activities were taking place as a way to keep track of the program. There was also a brief form, participants were asked to complete that explained liability and are encouraged people to talk with their doctors, if they had certain medical conditions. Sandi said she doesn’t know of any examples of doctors discouraging patients from participating in Active Ottumwa activities. On the contrary, many doctors referred their patients to Active Ottumwa.

Joe Slaymaker: It was a good start, because they allowed us to have a place that we didn’t have to charge people to take the lessons. I, I actually had to apply for a grant to play for our Caller. But that worked out well through square dancing. We had conventions; we can make money. So we were putting money into this to our Caller. And it worked out well. It was a good relationship.

Mary Hart: Just trying to find a program that I thought would be easy to learn and enjoyable, but not want to be boring. And I could keep trying to keep it interesting. I wanted to be, you know, I’m not like, not going to want the same thing over and over again. But then I wanted to, like keep it interesting enough. So that like just hoping new stuff all the time. And I think trying to keep 35-to-40-minute time frame every week, like, trying to occupy that time, every week. And when getting of course I had no idea about who’s just going to show up. And, and it’s challenging, because if you get new people every time, then you got to start over every time. So I guess that that type of thing

Betty Panlaqui: To walk is their own initiative, they really want to walk. What is challenging to me, for the new walker, when I’d left them to fill out the form. Because we have the form that people are feeling after before you will be a member of the Active Ottumwa. Some of them they declined to fill those forms. But there are those who are filling it. So that they say, challenging to me. But yes, I have told you, as long as they want to walk, as long as they are walking, those things are just secondary. So sometimes that makes me that is a challenge for me how I can motivate them to fill out those forms before they will get started to walk or be a part of the Active Ottumwa. So sometimes I ask candy pieces or the backpack like that. So when I gave those stuff to them, oh, they are really happy. And they will, they will find the, they will fill out the form to write their names.

Blaire Siems: For me, it was just there was an expectation that I had in my head that I you know, I was going to have a dozen people show up and walk with us. And once I kind of overcame that, that you know what it’s okay to have four there. I think there were four of us who are consistent every week. That was I guess my biggest obstacle, just the expectations that I created of how big it was going to get, and versus what we actually consistently could do. And honestly, it makes complete sense. I mean, the likelihood of having such a large group walk together at once, probably isn’t going to happen and it just logistically won’t work out.

Mary Hart: When you’re trying to meet and find a place to plug in for my CD player, I came to know. I supply the music. And that’s really all we need. I just I needed Sandy to, you know, let everybody know if we couldn’t have class or, you know, she made up the monthly calendar. You know she kept things going to let people know what was going on. I guess that, you know, I didn’t need anything personally for my class, but I needed her to keep the publicity and information.

Betty Panlaqui: Resources coming from the Active Ottumwa, we have all this stuff that we need. And perhaps we just need something new, like more on advertisement, if we can advertise it more in the community so that there is something going on in the community about this Active Ottumwa. Because there are some people they are asking, they have heard about the Active Ottumwa. And they are asking, “what is the Active Ottumwa?” Oh, one of my people said, “who is the leader of Active Ottumwa?” And perhaps they know, they want to know more about the Active Ottumwa in the community. So that more people will join, and more people will become physically active.

Hannah Shultz: The commitment of the PALs to the program, their groups, and the community was great. They clearly needed support to make it as successful as it was, from swag to social media promotion, and help identifying locations for classes. They share some of the ways the Active Ottumwa team, particularly Sandy helped set them up for success.

Blaire Siems: Other than like the social media promotion was nice. They did provide us at one point, when you walk, you don’t want to like carry all this stuff. So I remember Sandy getting us some awesome like fanny packs. And those were huge. So we can keep her car keys and our phone, and we still felt safe and not carrying all this, all this stuff. And so that was helpful. And then, of course, I don’t know the having the t-shirts that they were the bright green. So it really told everybody who we are, who we were with, we were easy to easily identifiable. That was really the only thing like physically providing us with the for the group though. I know Active Ottumwa in the very beginning provided a Fitbit too to help us know track exactly how far we were walking. So that was really helpful. So but I think it was and then just knowing that there was support there. I guess Sandy was always there if we had questions. I didn’t feel like I was doing it alone, which was nice. Because I think I guess thinking about sort of the expectations that I had, in the beginning, I was a little stressed thinking that, you know, I was going to be doing this all on my own. And what if I was sick, and what if you know where I traveled and I couldn’t leave my group. But we but the whole group really stepped up and helped out and Sandy was an immense help as well. So that’s just having that support was great.

Sandy Berto: That the Bridgeview Center, which is our big event center here in Ottumwa was very cooperative in making sure that we were able to get into the lobby area. And it’s a nice walk with great big windows along the river and the time went by there very quickly. We also utilize St. Mary’s where most of the Latina activities were held in the basement there. We also had classes at our local Crisis Center for the women who were in attendance, or were there, or needed to come together not as Blair’s address, not only the social component, but then the physical activity. Part of it. We utilize the Ottumwa Regional Hospital, Wilson School. And last but not least that I can remember is Good Samaritan Center. I had been it’s one of our local rehab centers, and I had been at a healthy community meeting and was asking the people in attendance if they knew of any spaces that would be free of charge for physical activities to be held. And they had a beautiful rec room in the lower level of their, like not their assisted living, but their independent living center, beautiful place where we held video led yoga. And I think it was also a dance fitness class held there, video led dance fitness class. So the work of not only the PALs, but the different organizations that supported Active Ottumwa to make it be as successful as it was.

Hannah Shultz: We’re about to hear what PALs would have liked to have known when they started. The different answers reflect the experiences and personalities of the PALs, from a career in teaching that require constant reflection and improvement, to being new to recruiting people to try new things.

Blaire Siems: I wish from the beginning; I would have known kind of how important my like I’ve said my circle of influence. The focusing more on the people around me that I see daily, like the people I work with, and what not. So family members, stuff like that, I wish I would have known from the beginning to spend my time and my energy focusing on those individuals and getting them involved. Um, that I guess, from the very beginning, I think that would have just been helpful. But yeah, I think that would be the biggest piece, I guess. So I kind of felt disappointed in myself not getting more of the community involved. But again, for how quickly we walked to understand that physically, some people just couldn’t handle that pace. I completely understand it, it made me feel better once more walking groups got up and going. And mine wasn’t the only one that made me feel a lot better. So there were a lot of other opportunities for individuals that wanted to participate in that kind of activity. And mine was definitely a more robust and fast-paced group. So that was okay once I understood that.

Mary Hart: It just it did seem like there was always something that I could learn to do better. After every class, I think, you know, something good was on there.

Joe Slaymaker: It’s the trying to reach people. And I don’t know how to do that. That’s why we went through Active Ottumwa to try to recruit. No, I don’t have answers to that.

Hannah Shultz: One of my favorite questions to ask throughout the series is how did Active Ottumwa change you? I enjoyed hearing the responses from this group of PALs.

Mary Hart: I never thought you know I would ever be able to do that. And I think I just was looking for consult and moving so many different people as many different abilities, and you know, actually having to interact with different people rather than closing yourself off. It just forces me to be a more sociable and a more caring person I think. For me it did. You know more understanding and caring person. Like meeting these people that had a lot of problems, you know, sometimes so it’s been good for me.

Betty Panlaqui: Since I have been in the, participated in Active Ottumwa and become a PAL I got so many friends. I’ve got so many I have learned so many stories of different people. I have known different kinds of ethnic people in the community. And I have learned. I have known their lives. How did they are doing, to you in the community because there are some people that I have met, they came from the other states and they are walking in the mall. So I have learned some stories with them. I have I have known so many different ethnic people. I have learned their cultures and everything. So all of those things, makes me happy. When I was in the Active Ottumwa because I know so many people in the community. And so many people are having they’re helping hands. Especially when the time that my husband had the accident. I am very, I am really very, very thankful with the Active Ottumwa because of the financial help that they gave us through the leadership of Sandy. And I’m really, very, very thankful for that.

Joe Slaymaker: We realized we weren’t in it by ourselves trying to keep people actually using, Sandy’s a power herself. She keeps things interesting.

Blaire Siems: That my peer’s kind of volunteered me for the PAL position and I forgot about that. I remember at the time, thinking I guess I was honored that that people saw me as someone they look to for kind of that healthy lifestyle. Which is comical, I’m really far from healthy. I don’t exercise as much as I should. And I eat whatever I want. So I really should, Active Ottumwa made me better in that respect for sure. But it really did honor me that people look to me as a mentor and that really kind of changed the way I see myself. So I’d say that was the biggest piece. Talking about what Betty talks about getting to know these people and I mean they really became part of your family. I mean it was, I would be very sad on the weeks that I couldn’t be there to catch up with everyone and see what was going on in everyone’s life. And so when I could be there the following week, and everybody could fill me in on what was going on. It was nice, it kind of fed my soul a little bit so I started to depend on those activities for that aspect.

Hannah Shultz: You may have noticed that Betty has a lot of energy and is deeply committed to her community and walking group. She told us stories about encouraging people to do their laps with their walkers and canes, they would take breaks between laps. But by the time she walked by again she would encourage them that it was time to keep going. She’s a great motivator and has been able to keep her walking group engaged and walking, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. By moving their walks outdoors.

Betty Panlaqui: Now that we are, we cannot go to the mall, but the mall is open. But some of my friends and one of my neighbors here they just want to go to the mall. So what we are doing now, early in the morning at 6:30, we are walking around the mental health facilities here in our place. So we are walking there instead of going to the mall, because they don’t want to go there because you know this COVID. So these people, there are some who have health issues that they don’t want to go there. So we just go to the mental health facilities and we just walk around there for six times for one hour. So I was able to get some of two of our neighbors to walk over there.

Hannah Shultz: I love hearing all of the stories today directly from the Physical Activity Leaders. Thank you to everyone who joined us for sharing yourselves with Ottumwa, and with our listeners. Thank you for tuning in. Thanks to the Midwestern Public Health Training Center for production support, the team at the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center for Rural Health, the Ottumwa community, and the many guests and contributors we talk with throughout these 10 episodes. See the podcast notes for more information about Active Ottumwa, and to connect with our team. This podcast is a product of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Center, supported by cooperative agreement number U48DP006389 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings and conclusions in this podcast are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.