Wellness group will meet at the Fassett Greenspace at 6:30pm
Interview: Who are the “Battling Mind Striders?”
By Andrew Harris
We are happy to introduce a new group dedicated to improving mental health in Wellsville. The concept is simple: Get together and walk together. This approach not only helps create connections, but uses the age old stress relief of ‘putting one foot in front of the other.’
The Battling Mind Striders introduce themselves:
“We are a walking & running group located in the Southern Tier of Western New York. Our motto: is to improve one’s mental and physical health by fostering friendships and keeping active. Also, our goal is to advocate and spread awareness for mental health. FYI… Must be 18 and over!”
We talked with Michael Evans, one of the founders of “BMS,” about the group mission and the Tuesday July 2 walk happening in Wellsville.
When did you start this effort?
BLS: We started talking about creating this group about the end of March to early April. We met up to walk for the first time on May 11th 2024.
Was there a spark, or something specific that motivated you do start BMS ?
BMS: As founders of this group we have found that walking helped us to better our mental health and thought it would be great to spread that along to other people. We are open to anyone wishing to improve their mental health even if they don’t have a diagnosis. Everyone deals with their mental health in some way.
How far do you generally walk? Do you walk as a group or does everyone walk at their own pace ?
BMS: We currently walk about a ½ an hour to an hour or however long the people attending would like. We are still in the early stages of figuring that out. As of right now we might get 1 or 2 people attending each week so we currently walk as a group.
Explain how you are using the basic act of walking, to address mental health ?
BMS: Walking is a great way to burn negative energy and release positive energy into the body. We know from experience when we are frustrated or anxious removing ourselves from the situation and going for a walk helps us calm down. And that is basically what we are trying to promote.
Do you have any experience in the mental health field?
BMS: All three of us have our own mental challenges and have been dealing with them for many years.
Wellsville, like every population in the country, has some residents with what appears to be severe mental illness. How can you help those who are most acutely impacted? What is the plan if a participant needs much more than just a walk about ?
BMS: We think if someone comes to us needing more help than the walk we would just suggest they go see there counselor about this. That doesn’t mean we won’t be accommodating and listen to there story. Sometime it just takes a good set of listening ears to help someone feel better.
You are holding a walk soon forming at the Fassett Greenspace on Main Street in Wellsville. What time should those who wish to walk show up? Can they come early to ask questions or get comfortable with the situation ?
BMS: For all the walking groups we try to get there early so if people wanna come early and ask questions they are more than welcome. This one happening at the Greenspace we start meeting at 6:30 pm on July 2nd 2024 and we will probably start at 6:40pm. And if anyone has any questions they can also message us on our Facebook group, we are called The Battling Mind Striders.
Where do you see this going? Many of us, myself included, have used walking as a mental wellness tool. Many others will just want to support this simple effort. What if you have 100 walkers ?
BMS: We also walk every Saturday at 2pm. We meet at Catholic Charities on East Pearl Street in Wellsville. We usually start at 2:05pm.
The hard part about the last question is we decided we would only talk about what we have done and what we are doing now because we are still new and we are trying to find our footing.
So if we get a hundred walkers that would be great. There are three of us so we would probably have to split the group up into multiple groups a week with one of us running each one.
What else should we know about the Battling Mind Striders ?
BMS: There is no sign up and there is no obligation to come. So if you wanna join us on a walk one time and not the other that is totally fine. All of our walking groups are free. We hope to continue to grow and help people find walking as a healthy activity to cope with their mental health.
All of our current walking groups except the pokemon go walking group are adults only. With the Pokemon Go walking group people under 18 years of age must bring a guardian.
Facebook group, we are called The Battling Mind Striders.
