DC Online

Daly City – The Daly City WalkAbout program will celebrate its fifth year providing North County residents the “perfect venue” to exercise and network twice-weekly inside Serramonte Center on Wednesday, February 2nd.

Registration starts at 8 in the morning, rain or shine, foggy or otherwise. The gathering area inside the expansive regional mall has been moved about over the years to accommodate the ever-increasing number of hikers, which has reached about 200. Nowadays, participants meet near the Blockbuster entrance to the mall. Warm-ups, which are led by a qualified Doelger Center volunteer staff trained by the Stonestown Family YMCA, start at 8:30 a.m. The brisk 1½ -mile hike inside the mall follows. This routine is repeated every Wednesday and Friday weekly.

On the first Friday of each month, there is TalkAbout, a 30-minute health education workshop with a variety of offerings, from heart disease and fraud protection, to foot care and cholesterol screenings. On Friday, February 4th, around 9 a.m., Dr. Colman Ryan, a cardiologist with the San Francisco Heart and Vascular Institute at Seton Medical Center, will speak on the prevention and treatment of congestive heart disease. The following month, on March 4th, Jill Giles, a registered nurse at Seton Medical Center, will talk about “Dealing with Depression.”

“WalkAbout’s success is a positive sign of the times,” noted Mayor Carol L. Klatt. “Our residents may be getting older, but they are also much wiser. Through the WalkAbout program, they are adopting healthier lifestyles and seeking useful information about good health.

Sue Horst, supervisor of the Senior Services Division – Doelger Center, credits WalkAbout’s success to the collaborative efforts of the program partners: Seton Medical Center, Serramonte Center, Stonestown Family YMCA and the City of Daly City’s Senior Services.

For more information, call the City of Daly City Senior Services Division – Doelger Center at (650) 991-8012, or visit www.serramontecenter.com .