The UNK Health and Physical Education club hosted its monthly walk last Thursday. On the third Thursday of each month, the group meets for the UNK Daily Mile to support maintaining physical and mental health on campus.
Kelly Snelling, a senior health and physical education major and president of the Daily Mile said that its implementation into a college campus is unique to UNK and a bit of an experiment.
“We incorporated the Daily Mile into UNK because usually we go into elementary schools and set it up there,” Snelling said. “We wanted to put it on a college campus since it hasn’t been done. We also wanted to boost physical activity in college students’ lives.”
This is Snelling’s second year on the project after joining for undergraduate research. She said it has led to people from all across campus meeting each other.
“It’s usually different people from different departments,” Snelling said. “These people with us aren’t in the sports department at all. I think they are business people. Last year we had a historian tell us about different buildings and their history, and that was cool because we don’t hang out with historians every day.”
Alexys Kersenbrock, a senior majoring in health sciences and management, was one of the attendees at the last meeting. It was her first time joining the Daily Mile for a meetup.
“I like it, and I think it is a good way to get outside and interact with others,” Kersenbrock said.
Kersenbrock said that she went to the last meetup “just to get a breath of fresh air and some exercise for the day.”
The Daily Mile has grown in both physical membership and online interaction since Snelling joined.
“The process has been awesome, getting people to know about it and having the Daily Mile grow,” Snelling said. “In the past year we have gained over one hundred followers on our Instagram. More and more people are starting to have more knowledge about it.”
Snelling also spoke about the positive atmosphere of the Daily Mile.
“People always wanna have fun, they come out and are supportive and you get exercise so obviously that helps your mental and physical health,” Snelling said.
Despite being called the Daily Mile, the group only meets once a month as it is more convenient for the attendees to plan around.
“You wanna get in a daily mile regularly every day, but we just have one meeting a month,” Snelling said. “It is hard to fit one every single week with everyone’s schedules between professors, faculty, and student
Snelling said that the first walk of this year had a smaller attendance than the end of last year. She said she hopes to see more people join the Daily Mile throughout the year.
