RMC opens trail: ‘Let’s start walking’

“Walking is good for you,” the 82-year old Ziegler said. He walks about three miles every week and “it makes me feel good to get out there and exercise.”

When the Regional Medical Center announced plans to open a quarter-mile community walking trail on the front lawn of its U.S. Highway 601 campus, he wanted to attend.

“It gives the community a place that is secure to come out and walk,” Ziegler said.

The hospital officially cut the ribbon Wednesday for the four-lane trail, which is free and open to the public.

RMC Vice President of Strategy and Compliance Brenda Williams said the walking trail shows the hospital’s “commitment to improving the health of the community.”

“As citizens, we must take full responsibility for our health,” Williams said. “We can build and ribbon cut all the trails in the world, but unless we as citizens get up and come out and walk it, it will do us no good. I would encourage all of us to seek a state of healthiness for ourselves and our community.”

Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler encouraged all those in attendance to look at one another and say, “Let’s start walking.”

“Walking is a great exercise that can reduce and eliminate many health issues,” Butler said. “This walking trail is a beautiful addition to the medical center and I know it will be utilized by many.”

The trail is constructed of an asphalt foundation covered with a soft blue rubber top.

Recommended hours of use will be from dawn to dusk. There are plans to add lights to the walkway in the near future. There are also plans to add exercise stations in the future, depending on the availability of funding.

The cost for the project was $108,518, which includes all design and engineering fees. A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant provided $42,100; the RMC Auxiliary donated $15,000; the RMC Foundation donated $15,291 and Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, obtained $36,127 from the state legislature.

Acting State Director of the USDA Rural Development Community Program Michele Cardwell praised the hospital administration for its foresight in developing the walking trail.

“The leaders here at the RMC are trailblazers,” Cardwell said. “I guess that is why they wanted to put a walking trail here.”

Cardwell says walking about 30 minutes a day can reduce heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Barbara Riley says the walking trail is important to her.

“I am a diabetes patient,” she said. “I am looking at it because I know I can walk but it is something I don’t do.”

Riley said she plans to use the trail.

“Most times when you go exercise, you have to pay a fee to go to the gym,” Riley said. “Here there is no fee. You can just come out and walk around. I can bring my mom out. That is a good thing.”

Bernice Rivers says the trail provides her with another option.

“I love to walk,” she said. “It is a safe area and it will be a good place to walk.”

Rivers said while walking in the mall is good, “you walk better when you walk outside.”

“Walking is a good exercise,” Tameka Eison said. “It does not hurt anyone. The little kids and the older adults can walk. Exercise is always best.”