{"id":1453,"date":"2017-07-05T19:10:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T19:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=1453"},"modified":"2025-02-13T12:26:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T17:26:30","slug":"sole-sisters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2017\/07\/05\/sole-sisters\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Sole&#8217; Sisters"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column1453_2df069-6e > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column1453_2df069-6e dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45\"]{font-size:1.5rem;line-height:30px;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;color:#808080;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1453_3d7058-45\">Every day, WilmU\u2019s Annual Fund Senior Director Gloria Johnson laces up her sneakers, grabs her water and hits the pavement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She\u2019s part of the growing movement called GirlTrek. With close to 100,000 neighborhood walkers, GirlTrek encourages African-American women to use walking as a first step to inspire healthy living and positive change in their communities. With icons like former First Lady Michelle Obama supporting the revolution, it has become the largest health-related nonprofit of its kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In March of 2014, Johnson searched for a local walking group to jump-start her fitness journey. \u201cDealing with weight gain,\u201d she says, \u201cI wanted to be able to walk around without losing my breath and feeling exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She found GirlTrek online and created a local team named Delaware Sole Sisters, which is comprised of sisters, mothers, daughters \u2014and many WilmU alumnae. The group inspires Johnson because they\u2019re taking control of their lives, which is important for African-Americans who face dangerous health statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions estimates that nearly 48 percent of African-American women have some form of cardiovascular disease that includes heart disease and stroke. The group also has the highest rate of obesity of any group in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t just rattle off daunting statics: we <em>are<\/em> the statistics,\u201d says GirlTrek Co-Founder Vanessa Garrison. \u201cWe stay awake at night, have endless brainstorms, and are compelled to act every day. I calculated the average life expectancy of the women in my immediate family. It was 66.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johnson says her group has morphed her \u201cfitness journey into her health journey.\u201d It performs community service and hosts monthly social events to promote various forms of self-care and focus on the mental effects of changing one\u2019s life. To date, there are 200 members in its Facebook group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2016, the national branch of GirlTrek awarded Johnson\u2019s team the Trek Team of the Year. WU<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every day, WilmU\u2019s Annual Fund Senior Director Gloria Johnson laces up her sneakers, grabs her water and hits the pavement. She\u2019s part of the growing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[653,655],"class_list":["post-1453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-magazine-summer-2017","tag-wilmu-staff"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":653,"label":"Magazine Summer 2017"},{"value":655,"label":"WilmU Staff"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/SoleSisters-1024x676-1-727x480.png",727,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":653,"name":"Magazine Summer 2017","slug":"magazine-summer-2017","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1210,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":18,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":655,"name":"WilmU Staff","slug":"wilmu-staff","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1212,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1453"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16376,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions\/16376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}