WeWalk Wonderwalks

LandHealth Institute is excited to announce a series of Urban-Eco Wonderwalks in partnership with WeWalkPHL. They are a free walking group that meets weekly in numerous parks across Philadelphia. Making connections like this with other nonprofits and community based organizations is crucial in allowing LandHealth to grow and, ultimately, make change in our city. Our mission is to reconnect people and nature, and our Wonderwalks are one of the many ways through which we do this. By bringing people out to areas of their community they may not have explored yet, or may not even be aware exist, we hope they leave feeling more in tune with their environment, which will help inform them on how best to take care of it.

Our first WeWalk WonderWalk which took place with the Cobb's Creek Park walking group was just this past week and was co-lead by the WeWalkPHL leaders and LandHealth's Founder, Scott Quitel. We're looking forward to more planned partnered walks coming up this month. The WeWalkPHL members who came out had never been on the trails we explored with them, even though they walk the area all the time. The paths were in poor shape from lack of use but the walkers were still willing to check out different routes than their usual course.

Others may not have been so open to exploring those trails or the meadow we took a pitstop in. Many feel that areas like this are dangerous. The paths are overgrown, in some places have trees down, and the fields seem abandoned. These could be great spaces for the community if they were accessible, but the trails need to be cleaned up, leveled out, and they lack signage. If more people knew that they had unused natural resources like this right in their own neighborhood, they could bring more awareness to the work that needs to be done to make these spaces accessible. Many of the WeWalkPHL members we met are active in their community and they now have hopes of improving the conditions of the area we explored with them to open it up to others in their neighborhood.