Everyone's walking these days. Physicians and the public at large are realizing the health benefits of this most natural form of exercise. I can't talk up walking enough, and especially the wonderful efforts of Genesis House in Fowlerville, the clubhouse for Livingston Community Mental Health programs.

Once again, the clubhouse is sponsoring a walkathon fundraiser during the month of May. Kick-off is May 1. Genesis House members and staff will be walking each day and charting their miles. If you'd like to contribute, go to www.genesisliv.org for more information or call 517-223-1393.

Last year (2007) the walkers met their 200 mile/$1,000 goal. Your participation in this year's 7^th annual walkathon will be greatly welcome and appreciated. Click on the newsletter for May and July last year for pictures and other articles about the walk. You'll also find lots of wonderful things going on at Genesis House by visiting the website.

Last year's walk involved a special guest walker, Clayton Klein. Here in this blog, you'll find a story of the walkathon, and the story about Clayton and his participation.

Wishing you happy walking...and hope you enjoy these articles.

(Following is my article for the May 14, 2007 Fowlerview News & Views, and following that, my column in that issue about Clayton Klein's participation).

May walkathon raises funds for Genesis House activities

By Susan Parcheta

May is Mental Health Month and Fowlerville’s Genesis House on May 1 kicked off its 6^th annual walkathon to raise funds for clubhouse activities.

The following day clubhouse members walked with special guest Clayton Klein, former Fowlerville businessman and adventurer, also known nationally for his recent treks walking from Paradise in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula downstate to Hell and on to the Ohio border (see related story).

Lee Kellogg, clubhouse director, had invited Klein to launch this year’s walk. The clubhouse, under the auspices of Community Mental Health Services of Livingston County, seeks to help its members manage the symptoms of mental illness, while providing mutual support and transition into employment opportunities, along with establishing a balanced, healthy lifestyle.

“It’s all about paying attention to our physical health and trying to impact it as much as we can,” Kellogg said.

Following a business model, he explained, clubhouse members are helped through the Transitional Employment (TE) program, where they work part time in the community through various entry-level positions.

While this is the focus of the program, members are also encouraged to take the best care of their health as possible.

As Kellogg points out, “The incidence of virtually every health risk is higher for people with mental illness than those in the general population”--whether it be diabetes, heart disease, or simply life span of the individual.

Since walking offers such great overall health benefits, the clubhouse began the annual walkathon. After the first couple of years, the clubhouse members began walking every day, not just during May. “What happens,” said Kellogg, “is that people get used to walking.” Now they walk year-round.

Regular walking also helps persons develop good habits, he added. So the program is ongoing. “It really was thinking about physical health affecting your mental health,” he said, and how we can impact that.”

The walking program, along with the socialization aspects of the clubhouse and the transitional employment program enhances the overall impact of the Genesis program for its members.

The goal of the Transitional Employment program, said Kellogg, is to have half the clubhouse members working at any given time. “Transitional employment,” he explained, “is our most supported part.” Members are encouraged to become more independent.

“For the recovery process,” he said, “work is such a vital component for what people want to achieve in their lives.”

Mike Leahy is the Employment Specialist for the program. Currently he is working with members in six part-time positions at area businesses, with persons employed at Asahi-Kasei and McDonald’s in Fowlerville, Leppek Nursery in Brighton and at Community Mental Health Service in Howell.

“The transitional program works well,” said Kellogg. Positions are usually six to nine months long. The work experience helps members gain self-confidence, he said. “They try on a few job experiences and move into more independent work.”

Clubhouse members are always welcome to come back once they move on, said Kellogg, noting, “it’s important to know it’s not the end, but a recovery process as long as needed.”

Genesis House has 50 active members and about 50 alumni. “A lot of them pop in once a year,” he said.

There are various activities and events giving members an opportunity to work together -- through the clerical unit, which keeps the clubhouse going and puts out a monthly newsletter (now available online and via email), and the kitchen unit, which plans and prepares daily meals.

Social events and activities are also planned into the program…such as the recent wedding shower the clubhouse hosted for Mike Leahy, who is getting married this month. The kitchen crew made a cake for the occasion.

Opportunities for travel and socializing coming up include the May 24^th “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” rally at the Michigan State Capital, recognizing May as Mental Health Awareness Month. Representatives will attend from each county. 

On May 1 Genesis House participated in the annual town hall public hearing for Community Mental Health to get and give feedback about the services.

Clubhouse members also may attend a summer camp in August sponsored by the Michigan Association of Clubhouse Camping.

In March members and staff attended the Michigan Association of Clubhouses Conference in Lansing.

Fundraising efforts will also help members to attend the International Seminar in Milwaukee in October, sponsored by the International Center on Clubhouse Development.

Walking provides a unique way of socializing for the members and staff, as well, Kellogg pointed out. “You get different interactions when you walk with people,” he said. “In 20 minutes you can learn a lot more about people.”

The daily walks also provide clubhouse members with exposure to the community, he added, noting that many area residents are not familiar with Genesis House. With the walk, he said, “They see it as an active place and it helps with community visibility.”

Genesis House has been located in Fowlerville for seven years now, Kellogg said. “The community has been wonderful,” he added, “as well as generous and understanding of what we’re trying to do.”

Kellogg looks forward to Genesis House becoming more involved in the community, such as working with the schools on programs about what it’s like to have a mental illness.

The staff is glad to give talks whenever asked, he noted. A program might explain what it’s like, for example, to live with Schizophrenia.

“For us, it’s about anti-stigma and education,” said Kellogg. He spoke about one speaker who was making a high school presentation. A student came up to her afterward, telling how much the talk had helped.

Kellogg explained that these kinds of presentations help educate people to identify the early stages of mental illness, as they perhaps recognized that it might be happening to them.

“So I think we have a responsibility to the community to educate,” he said.

Genesis House has a Speaker’s Bureau leadership group that will work on public speaking. “It’s fairly active,” he added,” but we’d like to take it up to the next level.”

Genesis House is seeking sponsors and donations during this May Walkathon. The goal this year is to walk 200 miles, with 40 participants and raising $1,000.

Last year there were 36 participants who walked 186 miles with $763 raised.

The clubhouse members are asking friends and family to consider supporting their efforts by making a donation to Genesis House.

Genesis House is located at 501 W. Grand River in Fowlerville, MI 48836. Contact Lee Kellogg, director, for more information at 517-223-1393. The clubhouse website is: www.genesisliv.org

Clayton Klein inspires Genesis House members at walkathon

By Susan Parcheta

Fowlerville’s Clayton Klein inspires would-be walkers wherever he travels.

His visit May 2 to help kick off the Genesis House Walkathon for Mental Health Month was no exception.

Klein joined clubhouse members for lunch and then Lee Kellogg, Genesis House director, introduced him for his talk.  

“Are you the one who walked to Hell and back?” queried one Genesis House member. Amidst the laughter, Klein quipped, “I am. But I didn’t quite make it back.”

Klein, sporting his Walk the Talk t-shirt from the Fowlerville segment of his walk From Paradise to Hell and Beyond last year, told his story about how walking had helped him regain his health after a back injury 40 years ago. 

His injury arose from constant lifting of 100-pound bags of fertilizer when he owned Klein Fertilizer, which he started here in Fowlerville in 1951. “I was trying to keep up with the younger employees,” he said.

He explained that he had not been careful about lifting the bags properly. Eventually he wound up with a slipped disc.

“I had to go to the hospital in traction for a week,” said Klein. His back improved, but after hauling more fertilizer he wound back up there again.

A farmer friend visiting during the hospital stay,” Klein noted, had told him, “Clate, if you can find a way to get out of this hospital, I think I know a doctor who can help you with your back problem.”

Klein said he faked feeling better and, after three days the doctor let him go home…with the warning: “But you’ll never get over this until you have back surgery.”

The chiropractor who examined Klein told him,  “I think we can fix this.” Following treatment, Klein was told to walk a little bit every day. By the third week, he was walking a quarter mile a day.

The doctor, Clayton told clubhouse members, advised him to walk more. “Keep walking,” he said, ”and you won’t have any more back trouble.”

Klein said that in January 1967 he began recording his walking experience. Since then it’s been part of his daily life.

Now, of course, he is well known for his solo treks across Michigan, and in the past two years he has walked the length of Michigan.

Klein is planning to walk from Paradise to Hell and beyond again this fall, as long as he feels his health will support it. He walks 4-5 miles each day, gradually building miles over the summer.

“I’m not very speedy,” Klein told the clubhouse members, “but I can still walk and nothing hurts.”

That was enough to inspire one clubhouse member, who’d been suffering from back problems, to try walking that day. She didn’t make the long route, but she completed a short route out and back to the clubhouse. She entered her distance on the clubhouse chart and said she would keep on trying to walk.

Another clubhouse member, also inspired to walk for the walkathon, stayed with Klein all the way as he led them on their mile-long walk into town and back.

About a dozen members walked with Klein that day. With that kind of inspiration at the kick-off, members will undoubtedly meet their walkathon goal of 200 miles and 40 participants by month’s end.   

“The first year,” Kellogg said about their first walkathon, “people were excited, but they only walked 52 miles and 21 participated.

Eventually, however, clubhouse daily walking continued beyond the walkathon, and the members began to incorporate that walk into their daily life.

As the walkers were beginning to discover, Kellogg added, and as Clayton Klein acknowledges when people ask him about walking, “If you don’t do it, you miss it.