{"id":103975,"date":"2025-07-30T05:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103975\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T05:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:21:13","slug":"trentons-water-walkers-caters-to-older-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103975\/","title":{"rendered":"Trenton\u2019s Water Walkers caters to older women"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Camden and Cherry Hill to Trenton and the Jersey Shore, what about life in New Jersey do you want WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Every morning except on Sundays, a vibrant group of women \u2014 mostly older adults \u2014 gather in and around the city-owned Hetzel outdoor pool.\n<\/p>\n<p>Clad in colorful swimsuits and pearls, the \u201cWater Walkers\u201d celebrate fellowship and fitness with founder and certified water aerobics instructor Donna Wellons.\n<\/p>\n<p>The group began as a \u201cjoke\u201d and turned into a transformational movement for the older women, Wellons said. She said she was just playing around in the pool during the COVID-19 pandemic when, on a whim, she invited the public to join her. Wellons, 57, a Trenton native and a social emotional learning educator, said that when she uploaded the clip of herself playing in the pool to social media, people began asking her details about the \u201cpool meetup.\u201d\n  <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-709905\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/trenton-walkers-donna-wellons-072825.jpg\" alt=\"Water Walkers founder Donna Wellons\" width=\"501\" height=\"430\"  \/>Water Walkers founder Donna Wellons is making waves in the capital city. (Courtesy of Donna Wellons)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the pandemic, the pool was the only thing that was open,\u201d Wellons said, noting that many establishments in and around the city were mandated to shut down. \u201cAnd here we are six years later.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love the water and fellowship,\u201d said Clara Blakely Sampson, who has been attending Water Walker classes for five seasons. \u201cI love swimming and I love the water. I\u2019m 87 years old. I am able to get around good, and I think the water helps me out a lot.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Victoria Bland, another group member, said the sisterhood she found through the class has been affirming.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first thing I say before class starts to everyone is \u2018Good morning, gorgeous,\u2019\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Bland said newcomers are welcomed to the \u201chealing waters\u201d with a song.\n<\/p>\n<p>Workout sessions for the group start with warm-up exercises, followed by low-impact routines that improve flexibility, balance and strength. But it\u2019s the camaraderie that keeps members coming back each season, they said.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Camden and Cherry Hill to Trenton and the Jersey Shore, what about life in New Jersey do&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":103976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1198,18949,55147,210,63915,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-103975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-friendship","10":"tag-growing-golden-aging-with-purpose","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-new-jersey-diaries-from-shore-towns-to-small-towns","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114940509165182817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}