Seniors Get Their Walking Moai On

Thanks to Vitality City and the efforts of Gwen Binegar and Janet Murphy, 36 seniors have formed a Walking Moai, aka walking group, getting together in Manhattan Beach to take positive, healthy steps once a week.

The results have been notable.

Bertha Kantinos, 88, walks with a walker. When she first joined the Walking Moai, she could only walk 100 steps, and had to stop along the way. As of 11 weeks, she walks more than half a mile.

“I had high blood sugar,” she said, “and was overweight. I have lost 20 pounds, largely I think because of walking. The walking group was an incentive to do something to be healthy. Besides, being outside with others is better than just sitting alone inside.”

Indeed, every Wednesday at 10 a.m., the group walks the perimeter of the soccer field on Park Avenue between Manhattan Village and the Manhattan Country Club. 

It’s about 500 steps around the soccer portion of the field, and 500 steps equal a quarter of a mile. Four times around, and a walker has traversed a little more than a mile. For some, it’s a piece of cake. For others, a challenge.   

Said Murphy, “I have angina and a light case of congestive heart failure, so I have to pace myself. It’s a fine line between enough and too much. For now, I walk around once, sit down for a minute, and walk around again.” 

The senior walking group began when Binegar, who already walked 7,000 steps a day to keep her legs from cramping at night, and other seniors from Manhattan Village Senior Villas, attended a Vitality City Walking Moai meeting to form a walking group. Binegar agreed to be the leader.

The seniors were given pedometers to measure the number of steps they walked, with Binegar reporting each individual’s steps to Vitality City. At that point, the group was just circling the parking lot of the Villas, which wasn't very safe, as one member was hit by a car backing out.  

Murphy then suggested that the soccer field across the street from the Villas would be a better option, safer with no traffic. She called Jan Buike, supervisor of the Older Adults Program in MB, who saw the merit of the project, securing permission for the group to use the soccer field. Since then, Binegar or Murphy report the group's attendance to Buike, not the steps taken.

Walker Judith tends to arrive early on Wednesdays, making several rounds before anyone else gets there.

Reg Barkes, 95, and Isabel, who don't live at the Villas, sometimes walk together, arriving to walk around the soccer field a few times, climb the 59 steps to Manhattan Village, and then retrace their steps to take a couple more jaunts around the field. 

Said Walking Moai member Harry Strider, “I used to work out at a nearby fitness center, but with no car now, I just follow the others in the walking group.”

Christine Troxel is new to the Villas. As a widow and diagnosed with macular dystrophy, she wanted to be nearer to her sons. So she is taking advantage of all the activities in MB, including the Walking Moai, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, and singing in the chorus at American Martyrs.

Binegar, who is active in the city's Older Adults Programs held at the Joslyn Center and leader of the OAP poetry group, says her middle name should be “arranger,” as she has always arranged activities, both while working for the City of Torrance and at TRW, and now, since despite heart trouble, she arranges ice cream socials at the Villas. 

Join Manhattan Beach Mayor Nick Tell on the first and third Tuesday of the month for a Walking Moai at 9 a.m. Mayor Tell meets at Peet's in downtown MB. You can talk anything MB with Mayor Tell while you walk.

ign up for a Vitality City Walking Moai.