The Kappa Psi Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. will host its 12th annual Walk It Out event this Saturday, Oct. 12, at Warner Park Community Recreation Center.
This free community health and wellness event is part of the UW-Madison Multicultural Homecoming festivities and, for the first time, the event will feature two Walk Champions: Glenna Scholle-Malone and Harry Ogden will lead the walks.
Scholle-Malone serves at the Assistant Vice President of College Persistence with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County and is also founder of Glenna Maureen LLC, where she provides personal training and group fitness in both the Madison and Milwaukee areas promoting wellness and healthy living for communities of color, especially focusing on women of color.
Ogden is an Internal Control Auditor at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. He is also a deacon at Mt. Zion Baptist Church and manager of the Harry W. Ogden, Jr. Memorial Fund, which provides scholarships to deserving local African American students attending college.
Attendees can choose to go on is a 2-mile walk or a 3-mile run. There will also be health-focused workshops featuring the popular hip-hop, rock and mainstream dance cardio format called WERQ and reflexology and massages by Group Health Cooperative (GHC).
“There are a lot of action activities going on,” Erika Bullock, chair of the 2019 AKA Walk It Out, tells Madison365. “But we also have a healthy cooking demonstrations. They will have massages, a workshop going on around mental health, self-care, and relaxation techniques and dealing with our internal selves as well.”
There will also be an ongoing health fair where different agencies will be there to share information about various health issues that the community faces. They will provide resources and give people a person to talk to about various issues.
“There will also be a set of activities going on for children so that they will be active and creative,” Bullock says. “People can feel free to bring their children to this event. It’s really a day for the whole family.
Attendees will also be treated to a healthy cooking demonstration with delicious samples to eat. For many years, that was the late Chef Rod Ladson was famous for at the annual Walk It Out event.
“With Chef Rod’s passing, one of our big challenges was to find somebody to pick up that torch,” Bullock says. “The 100 Black Men of Madison has agreed to continue to support us with the Healthy Cooking Demonstration. Our cook this year will be Carmell Jackson, with Melly Mel’s. Her focus will be on healthy soul food … just thinking about some of the things that we love to eat and how we can make them better for us. We still want to enjoy the things that we love but in a healthier and affordable way.”
Kappa Psi Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is comprised of college-educated women from all walks of life – entrepreneurs, educators, public servants, engineers, health care professionals to name a few. Their annual Walk It Out event has traditionally been held in late July. This year will be in October.
“I, personally, would prefer to be out walking when its a little brisk than in the dead heat of the summer. I really love the fall,” Bullocks says. “When people walk around they will be able to see the leaves changing and the fall colors. Warner Park is really beautiful and scenic. I think that it will be an enjoyable walk visually as well as physically.”
Walk it Out is free to the community.
“This is open to the entire community. The whole family. There’s something there for everyone. We want to see the entire community come out. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The Kappa Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. will host its 12th annual Walk It Out event this Saturday, Oct. 12, 9 a.m.-noon, at Warner Park Community Recreation Center, 1725 Northport Drive. Registration is free; advance registration encouraged at http://bit.ly/WalkItOut2019
