Health Department and Extension starting a walking group

Montana State University Extension and Hill County Health Department are partnering together to start a walking group in Havre which will start walking Tuesday, Feb. 4, and Friday, Feb. 7, from 11 to 11:30 a.m. and 2 to 2:30 p.m. at the Holiday Village Mall.

“Our Havre Walking Group is going to be open to anybody who wants to come join us and walk inside,” Montana State University Extension Agent Jasmine Carbajal said. “With the winter, it’s really hard to walk outside, and so we decided to lead a couple of walking groups.”

She said that she and Hill County Health Department Health Program Assistant Diona Buck are going to encourage people to walk with them for 30 minutes around the mall, and they plan to find other locations in the future to host the group.

Buck said, with variable winters in Montana, they aren’t sure how long they’ll do the walking group inside, but will continue to do the group in the warmer months in an outside location.

“It doesn’t matter if they walk slow or if they walk fast, with the both of us, that’s the nice thing, we can guide both types of pace,” Carbajal said. “It is just … one of the opportunities for people to be active during these winter months.”

People interested in signing up or with questions can contact Buck at 400-2360 or buckd@hillcounty.us .

“There is no expiration on when we are going to end the walking groups, we are just going to keep on walking for as long as people want to keep on walking,” Carbajal said.

The Havre Walking Group is a sub-group out of the Active Living Task Force, Buck said, which came out of the Hill County Health Consortium.

She said the consortium completed a health needs assessment from 2017-2020 that found the adult obesity rate in Hill County is 33 percent while the child obesity rate is 29 percent and that 27 percent of Hill County residents report that they engage in no physical activity other than at their job.

“We are just trying to promote active living,” Buck said.

The Active Living Task Force meets on the third Thursday of the month from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Timmons Room in the Hill County Courthouse.