Leopold club’s active attitude awarded

A LEOPOLD group dedicated to getting out and about in their neighbourhood and beyond is one of the five Victorian recipients of this year’s Active Australia Innovation Challenge, run by the Heart Foundation.

Set up by the Leopold Community and Learning Centre and often starting from there, the Adventure Walking Club runs weekly guided walks across the local area, including the Bellarine Rail Trail, with walkers travelling to a mystery location once a month.

The club started about six months ago in recognition of the fact people aged 60 and older tended to be less active than younger Australians, and that about 3,000 local residents fell within this age group.

Club member Dimitri Betz said numbers on the walk fluctuated between six and 12 people each time.

“Hopefully, programming the mystery tour will cause an upswing,” he said.

“We’ve spread our walks around the peninsula, and a coffee shop has got to be involved in there somewhere.

“We’ve actually been quite lucky with the Mondays; the only Monday I can remember where it actually rained was a lockdown Monday.”

He said the field on the walks tended to spread out, with the “fit and fast” heading out at their own pace and then turning back at the 30-minute mark to rendezvous with the slower group.

“So we cater for all levels of fitness,” Mr Betz said.

“A lot of it is the social aspect at the end. We seem to spend more time over coffee than we do walking!”

The club will use their grant to cover cost of providing guided walks, healthy lunches and minibus hire.

The Heart Foundation received 619 entries in this year’s national challenge – twice as many than in 2020 and almost five times the number submitted for the first challenge in 2018.

“The initiative has been growing in popularity year-on-year, but even we were surprised by the huge number of entries received for this year’s challenge,” Heart Foundation Victorian heart health manager Adam Stormont said.

“The Heart Foundation could not be more pleased by the increased participation, given around two-thirds of people in Victoria are not active enough for good heart health.”

This is a real concern, because being inactive is a risk factor for heart disease, our state’s single leading cause of death.

“One reason for the spike in entries could be that the pandemic has sparked interest in physical activity at a grass-roots level,” Mr Stormont said.
“Being stuck at home for long periods is making everyone appreciate their communities more and think creatively about ways to stay healthy and active.”