PLIX TeamWith over 208 walks and over 478 participants, PLIX ambassador Janea Coker of Barry Lawrence Regional Library introduced data literacy skills through PLIX Data Gems to older adults across her library system through a Walk with Ease older adults program, partnering with the Arthritis Foundation and the University of Missouri Extension (MU Extension).
Janea Coker
Program Coordinator Barry-Lawrence Regional Library (Monett, MO)
Ada: I'm curious about how you shared PLIX Data Gems in your library program. Could you start by sharing a little bit about how that went for you.
Janea: Well, one of the things that I did is a Walk with Ease program, partnering with the Arthritis Foundation and the MU Extension. In the Barry Lawrence Regional Library, we're using our Beanstack app to track everyone’s progress. It's a platform that libraries use for tracking, like 1,000 books before kindergarten, summer reading clubs, winter book challenges, or just any kind of library program like that that they want to do. Not everyone is able to get on the Beanstack app.
When Eden, our health person with the MU Extension in our area, and I were working on this, when we first started the program, we’d tell the participants, you need to go see your doctor first and foremost, just to make sure you're allowed to do the program. Then there's health and safety tips that we share, and Eden leads the proper warmups and cool downs and stretches. And there's this little tidbit thing in the [Arthritis Foundation] book. Greg, our young man that works with us at Barry Lawrence, and he came through, and he said, well, we could go ahead and put that on the Beanstack app. And so that's what he did. And so he embedded Eden’s videos in there. She's just amazing. We've done lots of programs together.
So it was really awesome to be able to do that on Beanstack. It makes it a lot easier to have badges, and people get awarded. We made a badge for filling out the forms, because, you know, everybody has to have their data, even the State. And so we had to fill out our authorization forms for BLRL and for the Arthritis Foundation for MU [Extension]. And so you got a badge for participating in doing that. For the different weeks, there were different steps you had to do to complete. And then you’ve got the different walking badges.
Ada: What inspired you to try it this way?
Janea: After doing our Data Gems things, I went ahead and I used the [data tracking] bracelet and things like that to do water and do this. I really liked how you had shared one of the little [data tracker] zine books. So I put in my water, and my reading because there's certain chapters you need to read and things you need to do for the Walk with Ease program. And then I talked about my walks and talked about healthy eating. Some of the stuff has been crazy in life.
Then I went back and I used my data that I had from when we did it the first time, and I put this [presentation] together. At the State Library workshop, I was able to show Data Gems as a way to track data, as well as in Beanstack. I also presented it at the MU Extension’s conference. So I’m sharing PLIX all over the place with these zines and our way to do the Data Gems. Just being more mindful of how we're tracking our data and what we're tracking, and it's just been very helpful for me as an individual just to realize, you know, because life is busy, and it's so much easier to stick something like this in there than to try to use the [Beanstack] app. I do use the app, but I may not always have my phone right there with me, because I'm not one that has my phone all the time. And for my elderly in the community, this [Data Gems zine] is much easier for them.
Ada: How does this Walk with Ease program work in person?
Janea: Actually, there's a couple of different ways they did it. Eden used to do it in person. Sometimes she would do it hybrid in person and on Zoom, but then we looked at doing it in libraries. She just did an initial kickoff at 4 of the branches. We sent the items out to all the other branches and then encouraged people. At each individual location there are people walking with their librarians. And so what we're doing is creating a community connection, because a lot of people are really missing that connection because of you know, Covid, and just life itself. And so as of a couple of weeks ago, when I did the program with her, we were up to 208 walks with 478 participants.
Ada: That's amazing.
Janea: Yeah, I think that's pretty exciting, so we want to expand it. It's a way to connect people with others, and some of them we are doing like book club talking while we're walking. You know, we talk about books, we solve the problems of the world. We talk about relationships and things that go on, you know, just be a part of our community.
And one of the other ways we're wanting to make it even larger is next year when we kick it off, our community right now does not have any of the races like the 4K, you know, the 1K, or anything like that. And so we're going to do it around grandparents day and encourage families to walk and to be the kickoff for this program. So then, that way, we're going to do T-shirts, we're going to try to do sponsors in the community and do things like how they do the turkey trots. We're going to try to do that and have that be our kickoff in the community.
Ada: I remember that your area is pretty rural. Where do the walks happen?
Janea: Sometimes some of us will meet like in a cemetery. We'll meet at a library. We'll meet at the Walmart, depending on the weather, but sometimes someone will be out feeding her horse and cattle and goats, and I'll be walking around laps inside the library with one or 2 other people, and we'll be on the phone, or on Zoom and things like that. So we make it virtual. It's really about the connection and the positive impact and trying to build each other up.
To make this work, we really had to have commitment from staff, because if they didn't have buy-in and they weren't willing to show the people how to use Beanstack, or tell them about the Walk with Ease, and the commitments from the patrons, because that commitment looks different for everybody. We wanted them to at least do about an hour a day, even if they broke it up into 15 minute increments. In the community, we went to our local Walmart, doing laps inside Walmart, or if it's a nice day and everybody's met there, then we'll do the parking lot, or outside the Y.M.C.A., or in a park, or the cemeteries. We've gone to about 6 different cemeteries. I just go wherever they say they can walk, and a lot of times we do them like at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. And then I'll do another one during the day with some of the patrons that can come in later.
Ada: About how many people are joining for these walks?
Janea: We would have anywhere from 2 to 7. From one other person joining me to 7 total, and then at some of the other branches, they might have 2 or 3. We're doing it across Barry Lawrence County. I think we've had up to 10 at one time when school was out, and some of them came with kids in strollers. Virtually, basically, everybody would go on their phones and we would do a phone tree. Like, if one or 2 were walking with me, we would dial the other person, and I would just put them on speaker. And then we have… one has a trampoline at home. One works on the farm, and so she's out feeding her cattle and everything like that. At some point I'll tell them, I say, well, we're at a mile now, do we want to keep walking? And they're like, Yeah, let's keep going.
Ada: Oh, that's wonderful! Are they also tracking their own walks?
Janea: Yes, they are. Like I said, Some are doing it on paper, and once they turn it in on paper, we go ahead and have to put it in the database at our end. That way, we'll get all those stats together properly, so when the program is over, we'll have our data to turn in.
Ada: Amazing. Oh, my goodness. I love just like that combination, we're all gonna do it together. And it's like, we can talk about anything and connect. I remember you already do so many different things to connect with your community, like roller skating and biking to deliver books. I'm curious about how you felt about connecting with people in that way, with you being so open and available.
Ada: As they're coming along with you for this wonderful community connection, what are some highlights that you've had from that experience?
Janea: Well, I've got to meet some new people. Actually, when we were walking outside of our library there at Monett, and there’s a development center next door. Some of our bus drivers that come and park their buses and just spend the day at the library while the kids are at an enrichment program that multitudes of our schools send for like Vo tech programming, vocational training. So the bus drivers just have to sit there, and sometimes they'll get there before we open. And one of them, she saw us walking one day, and she asked if she could come and join us. Of course, you know, we welcome anyone. We had a person that was sitting in the parking lot from New York City the other day, and they just said, we were wondering, could we join your walk? So it's all open to anyone.
Ada: That's really nice. Have you heard from them how it felt to be tracking their walks in their little zine?
Janea: Yes, one of the young ladies, she said that the accountability of it all, you know, because we get so busy. And even though we said, Okay, we're gonna walk these days we're gonna walk these times. And then, next thing you know, you look back and it's like, Well, what did I, you know, cause not all of us have, like my Fitbit doesn't always work properly, and my thing isn't right. So we got them the little pedometer. Well, those didn't work too well, either. But she found a really neat app and you can go back and look on that website and see where there's even been times we've submitted to “the winning starts now,” actually like a track of where we've walked. And so it shows a little a map of where we walked, and she shared with others in the community that, “hey, this is where we're walking, this is when we're walking, and you want to come get these steps. Come, join us, or just come on your own, and here's a little path you can do, and it equals a mile or 2 miles. Whatever you want to do.”
Ada: I'm wondering if you noticed whether these people are already inclined towards healthy habits or did you have to reach out in a different way?
Janea: A little bit of both. Yes, some of them, they've already been on a health journey, some of them had already had active lifestyles in the past, but then they kind of let things slide, and was taking care of family and just taking care of spouses, and was taking care of home and taking care of, you know, working all the time, and just let themselves get on the back burner. So now they wanted to take priority of their life again and put the healthy actions and habits to work again. And that's where the zine and the Data Gems and things like that… working with the data like that, it was really helpful for them because they were able to say, “See what I've done, I am making progress.” And the thing we're finding is that when we are very consistent with this, everybody feels a lot better. Even though Missouri weather can be really weird, like, it's actually warm right now. And we had a tornado come through again. I guess it was 2 nights before, in multiple areas, it knocked out power, with tons of flooding. So we have the weirdest weather in our area. But even in winter we just bundle up and go on. That's just that commitment that we want to make.
Ada: Since this is with the Arthritis Foundation, are all participants are over 50 or over 60?
Janea: No, not always because we have had some younger folks that have joined us. But yes, it's primarily for older folks, sponsored by the Arthritis Foundation and with the MU Extension. Some of them are people that have been in my chair yoga program that I've been doing for quite a few years, and so I've even got a lady that's 92. She only walks with us one day a week. It’s not always with me. Sometimes it's at the other branches.
Ada: That’s an amazing commitment. I'm curious about the STEM and STEAM experience with the data literacy part of it, with representing and collecting data. How did you present that to them, with the Data Gems content?
Janea: Yeah, I did it more with the art. I was saying, Hey, you could decorate it, you could put, you know, like a positive saying in there, you can make it color coded, like you shared when we did the [Data Gems playtesting]. So I brought up more of the art with it, as well as some of that part of the STEAM and STEM stuff. With the math, I was really surprised to go back and look when I did mine going back to the 6 week program that we did last year, I walked 270 miles. The thing that we've done that’s kind of fun, is, we've done a map, and we pretended, like you were going to go traveling. I've always wanted to go see Mount Rushmore. So could I have walked to Mount Rushmore, or the Grand Canyon, or back to the ocean, with just my baby steps every single day, 3 or 4 times a week. So this shows, you could play out on a map I had walked that many miles.
Ada: That’s such a fun way to play with your data! Did the participants do that too?
Janea: Some of them did. Some of them are just doing it because they want the socialization, and they're not as concerned about it. But I tell you, one little lady, she comes in, and she can't do the outdoor walks. So at one of our branches, we've started doing some of the online streaming videos that'll have like a mother and daughter where the mother is showing walking exercises next to the daughter that's seated. So it's like our chair Yoga, she can do that because one of the young ladies has oxygen and things like that. Even so, we want her to be very careful and conscious about her walking. But so it just makes my heart happy, though, that she's still excited about it. And she's actually got a few of our prizes. So we're super excited because she's been very committed.
Ada: I'm always blown away by the directions that you take all of these ideas and activities and expand it across your entire library system.
Janea: Well, once we did the presentation at MU [Extension], Eden was saying, she got like 10 or 12 phone calls about some of her other representatives and and educators that now were wanting to reach out to their libraries and say, “Well, hey, I mean, I thought about doing a program like this.” They didn't really think about working and partnering with us to present these kinds of programs. So they're excited, too. So that makes me super excited.
Ada: Thank you again for taking the time to share this with me. It’s incredible to see the direction you’ve taken this, and really think about doing something that not only addresses the healthy lifestyle goals of your community, but also bringing them together as a community. I’m sure this will continue to inspire others to try it out!
Next Steps for you to try
- đź’ Explore PLIX Data Gems and different ways track data with beads and charms.
- đź“ť Collect your own personally meaningful data with the Data Gems Pocket Data Collector interactive zine, in the printable resources section of the Data Gems activity.