GirlTrek’s mission is to add 10 years to life expectancy

In a powerful conversation about sisterhood, healing, and community, three remarkable women from GirlTrek – an organization that has mobilized over 1.3 million Black women to walk their way to better health – shared their vision for transforming lives one step at a time.

Marcie Thomas, Director of Community Care at GirlTrek, alongside wellness leaders Eboni Holmes and Deborah McGlawn, recently discussed how the 12-year-old organization is tackling what they call the three deadly “I’s”: inactivity, isolation, and injustice.

“Our healing is done in community,” Thomas emphasized, setting the tone for a conversation that wove together personal narratives of transformation with GirlTrek’s broader mission to increase Black women’s life expectancy by 10 years and beyond.

The organization’s approach is remarkably simple yet profound: get Black women walking together for 30 minutes, five days a week. According to Thomas, this simple act alone can add seven years to a woman’s life expectancy. This scientific backing adds weight to GirlTrek’s mission, making it not just a social movement but a legitimate public health intervention.

For Holmes, a Cosmetic Yoga Instructor and founder of Sacred Space Egyptian Yoga, discovering GirlTrek was a perfect alignment with her mission. “I met GirlTrek at a festival in South Carolina. Twelve women showed up with all this blue on,” she recalled. The organization’s connection to Harriet Tubman’s legacy resonated deeply with Holmes, whose own work celebrates the historical figure.

The impact of COVID-19 brought the importance of Holmes’ work into sharp focus. “During COVID, I lost about six or seven family members,” she shared, her voice carrying the weight of collective grief that many Black communities experienced during the pandemic. “It was the most death that I experienced in my whole life. And I realized it was all through preventable disease.”

This revelation led Holmes to establish the Black Moses Freedom Festival in Beaufort, a comprehensive approach to community wellness that addresses everything from food deserts to land preservation. The festival has become a hub for practical knowledge, teaching skills like making elderberry syrup while tackling systemic issues affecting Black communities.

McGlawn’s journey to GirlTrek began in 2016 when a Google search led her to the organization after breaking her ankle. A former avid runner, she found in GirlTrek not just an alternative form of exercise but a community that would inspire her to launch Chasing Waterfalls, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing “brown faces in green spaces.”

“We face all of the historical reasons why we may not want to go out hiking in the woods,” McGlawn explained, addressing the social and economic barriers that have historically kept Black women from outdoor activities. “We were not represented. So when I mentioned it to my friends, they were like, ‘Girl, we don’t do that,’ but we do, and we need to.”

The transformation McGlawn experienced through nature became a calling to help other women find similar healing. “My husband recognized that he took me to a waterfall, and it was there that I began to see myself again,” she shared. What started as a personal journey has evolved into a movement, with Chasing Waterfalls now leading monthly hikes that create safe spaces for Black women to connect with nature and each other.

Thomas herself has created the BGC Book Club, providing a vital platform for Black women writers whose voices often go unheard in the publishing industry. “Think about how it is being attacked,” she noted, referring to book bans and other forms of literary suppression. “The first thing they want to do is say that we don’t read, number one. But not only do we read, we write, we have brilliant minds.”

The conversation repeatedly returned to the theme of sisterhood and its power to transform lives. “We need each other,” Holmes emphasized, with McGlawn adding that GirlTrek has given her “everything that I didn’t know I needed,” including best friends and a stronger sense of self.

For women considering joining the movement, the leaders stressed the importance of changing preconceptions about Black women coming together. “Change what you think about Black women coming together in unity,” McGlawn urged. “Change what society has said. Get rid of the labels that they placed on us. We are not all ABWs, the angry Black women that they paint us to be. We are not catty.”

Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, GirlTrek’s vision extends far beyond walking. The organization plans to address food justice, atomic justice, land preservation, and political advocacy. Their comprehensive approach recognizes that health disparities in Black communities are interconnected with broader systemic issues that require collective action and advocacy.

The power of GirlTrek’s blue shirts has become symbolic of this growing movement. “If you’re wearing this blue shirt, somebody sees it like GirlTrek,” Thomas noted. “It never fails.” These shirts have become beacons of recognition, creating instant connections between women across the country who share the commitment to health and community.

The organization’s impact goes beyond physical health. As Holmes pointed out, “GirlTrek makes you realize, wait, you’re the priority first. That’s how you’re going to help your family.” This emphasis on self-care represents a paradigm shift in how Black women approach their own wellbeing, with McGlawn adding, “Just like on an airplane, they tell you to save yourself first.”

For Black women interested in joining this transformative movement, the leaders’ advice was clear and encouraging: visit girltrek.org, challenge preconceptions about Black women coming together, and take that first step – literally and figuratively. With over 1.3 million members and growing, their blue shirts have become symbols of hope, healing, and the power of sisterhood in motion, proving that sometimes the simplest actions – like walking together – can spark the most profound changes in our communities and ourselves.

In a world where Black women’s health disparities persist, GirlTrek offers a powerful solution: community, movement, and advocacy, one step at a time. Their work demonstrates that when Black women come together with purpose and intention, they don’t just walk – they march toward a healthier, more just future for all.