We Walk PHL stewards neighbors from all walks of life for guided, community-based park strolls, encouraging better health, deeper connections, and a safer environment across Philadelphia — including in Germantown.
If “taking steps to improve my life” were a person, it’d probably look like one of the many women who gather around the city to take a walk.
Every morning, around the city, 30 different parks and recreation centers host free, guided walks that aim to increase the use of Philly’s park system, promote better health outcomes, and create opportunities for folks to connect while pursuing fitness. These three goals are the foundation of We Walk PHL.
The program is a joint effort by the Fairmount Park Conservancy (FPC), the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH), and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation (PRR).
PDPH representative Shannon Dryden says this program aligns with the missions and values of all three organizations as they all “really focus on providing the safety net for health and wellness of all.”
On varying days throughout the week, neighbors can experience three different sites in Germantown: Vernon Park, Fernhill Park, and Awbury Arboretum. Each has its own walking path and offers an hour of fitness and connectivity — including personalized warm-ups and cool-downs.
In my experience, the walkers are predominantly older Black women. Those demographics may look similar citywide, based on participant survey findings from the PDPH conducted between 2019 and 2022. Most also have underlying and invisible health conditions and disabilities.
However, while they may share similar demographics, they are all very different people. Some live in the neighborhood they walk in, while some do not. Some are teachers, while others are political mobilizers. Some have children, while others are parents to pups.
But, in meeting various women across Germantown’s walking sites between September 8 through 14, they all agree that We Walk PHL accomplished what it sought to do. Sugar Roane, the walk leader of the Vernon Park experience, is one of those people.
It was 7:49 a.m. on Saturday, September 14, at Vernon Park, when the park was probably at its quietest. Sugar stood at the Germantown Avenue entrance with her bright red We Walk PHL-branded shirt.
I approached her, introduced myself, and we got to chat before the other ladies arrived.
Back at the program’s inception in 2017, Roane received an email from We Walk PHL saying they were looking for walk leaders.
“I thought it was a joke,” Sugar laughed, talking about her very first encounter with the program. “Because, at the time, I was 262 pounds. And I’m saying to myself, ‘These people must be crazy. I can’t walk!’ But I showed up. And 100 pounds later… here I am!”
And there she was, in the flesh, so dedicated to her role that she could even spot the other women arriving from afar just by their walk.
Roane also has asthma and says that at one point in her life, she was hospitalized almost every month. Now, she only carries her inhaler in case of emergencies. But, besides health benefits, Roane says what she enjoys the most is the community she builds twice a week.
“We started out just meeting each other,” she said. “Then we became walking buddies. And now? We’re family.”
40-year friends Dena Anderson-Smith and Lyn Thompson-Giles are also a part of that family and agree that it continues to grow. Anderson-Smith, who learned about We Walk from a friend — a common thread amongst many women — invited Thompson-Giles.
Besides a free T-shirt, she joked, Anderson-Smith said she was enticed to join this group because walking on a treadmill or going to the gym is boring to her. She says seeing the trees and the park in its early-day environment is beautiful.
T-shirts are also a common thread amongst the sites across the city. During my Vernon Park visit, the ladies had on varying colors and discussed them, which I then learned from FPC Education and Engagement Specialist Nichole Hameen. “They may represent a bit of status,” she laughed, as each year has a different color.
Thompson-Giles says that though she came here with Anderson-Smith, she is still comfortable coming when her friend can’t make it. She says, “That just tells you something about the ladies that are here.”
Almost a week prior, on the Sunday morning of September 8, at around 10 a.m., I gathered at West Abbottsford and McKean Avenues — a Fernhill Park entrance — to meet that park’s particular group of walkers. While walking down Fernhill’s trail, I spoke with co-walk leaders Barbara Abdullahi and Thakiyah Ahmad-Yankowy.
Ahmad-Yankowy, a wife and mother of three, shared her story about how parenting during the pandemic began to take a bit of an unconscious toll on her. “When you’re a mom, you don’t realize how much emotional support you are,” she said.
Feeling the emotional weight of others, Ahmad-Yankowy said she consoled herself through the nightly ritual of cake-baking when everyone in her house fell asleep. “I’d eat a hot slice with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and would Netflix and Chill with myself,” she laughed.
Besides her routine sweet treat, she was also experiencing menopause, which she says helped her pick up weight. But, after joining this walking group, Ahmad-Yankowy lost the 30 pounds she said she gained.
But, again, it’s more than the physical health aspect that keeps these ladies coming back–it’s the bonds they’ve forged, as Roane suggested.
Just like Anderson-Smith, the gym isn’t enough for Abdullahi. “Walking with a group is a lot of motivation,” she shared. She adds that being able to enjoy yourself with a group of people “talking and laughing” can make the time feel a lot less like exercising.
During these walks, conversations naturally arise, and they embrace it all, whether it’s “motherhood, politics, [or] physical changes.”
Abdullahi is aware of how tight people’s schedules can be. Consequently, they can miss out on what’s happening around them. She believes these walks can bridge the gap between people and their neighborhoods.
“Once you’re out walking and talking with people, that’s when you find out what’s going on right in your backyard,” Abdullahi explained.
Lynette Borum lives adjacent to the park and is one of the regulars. After hearing about it at Fernhill’s Fun Friday event series, she began walking with this group last year.
“I’ve always stayed to myself,” Borum shared, saying she’s usually limited to cleaning up trash and waving from afar. “But this gave me an opportunity to get out and experience the park like I haven’t before and meet some new people in my community.”
Borum combines the walks alongside trips to the gym for better health outcomes. At 59 years old, she does whatever she can to keep all the boxes for things like diabetes and heart disease unchecked, especially as a Black person.
She says it boosts her morale and mental health, saying it’s a great way to check in with herself. She echoes Ahmad-Yankowy’s earlier sentiments about caring for others and sometimes needing a moment for yourself.
“A lot of time, we take care of our families [and] our loved ones. But we got to take care of ourselves because if you don’t love yourself, who’s going to love you?” she said. “So I just think it’s important to take care of me.”
Tracy Rockmore agrees with this. Rockmore attended every single walking event I attended in that span of a week, and I got to speak with her on Friday, September 13, at the Awbury Arboretum site.
Walking down Washington Lane, between Ardleigh Street and Chew Avenue, Rockmore talked about how these walks have improved her physical and mental health. On the physical side, she says that she began to “lose inches,” which was great. But when she began to feel her cardio increase, she said, “This is even better.”
At the same time, she finds the walk to be “meditative.” She says some people might find her a bit antisocial, but she’s just “in [her] zone.” And I can confirm — she was in her zone as I asked her to chat right as she was putting in her headphones, ahead of the other ladies.
As a forager, she also enjoys seeing the different plants and greenery that the surroundings have to offer. The Awbury walk is the perfect time for just that, as you get to pass through the meadows and trails that some people in the neighborhood may not even know exist.
Rockmore also says a huge component of the We Walk PHL program is the safety of it all.
“About 10-15 years ago, I was walking to work, to the bus, and I got robbed,” she revealed. “So that has made me concerned and hesitant to do any public walking by myself or especially at night.”
But with a troop of ladies behind and beside her, Rockmore treks free as a bird through the Germantown area in the early mornings. She said, “We all have a safety net, which I enjoy.”
Abdullahi had similar sentiments around safety, saying this is a great way for folks to be on the lookout for each other and the neighborhood.
“It’s an unofficial town watch,” she shared. “The police are not on foot. They’re not available all the time. So, you gotta [watch] your own neighborhood. You don’t want your neighbors only coming out when something happens, so you want to be proactive.”
Ahmad-Yankowy plus-one’d her co-leader’s sentiments, saying that it makes the community safer. “You’d be surprised how many things may occur, and then people see you, and they just keep it moving,” she added.
At the end of each conversation, I asked the ladies if they had something to share with prospective We Walkers across the city, particularly those in Germantown. Though these conversations were held at different times and at different speeds, the unison was clear: sign up for your nearest We Walk PHL program to meet your personal fitness goals and, more importantly, build a community.
Roane ended our time together, saying, “I think everyone can benefit from We Walk PHL — I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you’re on a walker. I don’t care if you’re on a cane. You can come out here and walk with us because it’s not a race; it’s at your pace.”
Anyone interested in We Walk PHL has another month to do so before the season ends at the end of October. Visit their GivePulse page, where you can see a listing of the different sites and times and RSVP ahead.
As Roane’s original jingle for the Vernon Park We Walk group suggests, “You’ll be glad you did.”
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