When health researchers suggested that the Chinese Baptist Church on Beacon Hill offer dancing to older members as a way to stay fit, the idea got a big thumbs down.

Church leaders felt dancing was inappropriate in their house of worship. But they did finally agree to offer aerobics — as long as participants were seated at least half the time and a short prayer and devotion came first.

So it goes — small step by small step — in a grass-roots effort to rally an entire community around a common goal: helping older residents get off the sofa and become physically active.

The pilot project was launched in Southeast Seattle by researchers at the University of Washington, who will share the lessons they learn over five years with communities nationwide.

Since the study began last fall, new fitness classes and walking groups have been popping up. As part of program called "10,000 steps," the seniors at The Brighton apartments on Rainier Avenue South aim to collectively walk a distance equal to that between Canada and Mexico. Maps of safe places to walk are being distributed.

Booklets with tips on walking have been translated into several languages, and doctors are writing diabetic patients prescriptions for exercise.

"Healthy seniors are more likely to exist if they live in communities that are supportive," said Dr. Jim LoGerfo, the project's principal investigator and director of the UW's Health Promotion Research Center.

Information

Ruth Egger, community coordinator for the pilot project: 206-760-6236.

Health Promotion Research Center: www.depts.washington.edu/hprc

The center, one of the nation's leading research institutions on healthy aging, is running the project — but doing so in the background, allowing grass-roots groups to make it happen.

"I'm the web maker," said Ruth Egger, a community organizer for the project who spends her days linking groups that already sponsor exercise programs with seniors who need them.

In Southeast Seattle, after a flier encouraging residents to "Meet people in your neighborhood to go on walks" was distributed in businesses, senior apartment buildings and a local farmers market, a half-dozen women started their own group. They now meet in the lobby of Rainier Court apartments to walk for 30 to 40 minutes at their own speed, once a week for starters.

"I've been praying for this," said René Friedli, 80, who raised two daughters and worked as a telephone operator, saleswoman and accountant. While most of her friends have either died or moved into retirement housing, she still lives in her own home and has been getting most of her physical activity gardening.

Even though Friedli is in good shape for her age, her blood pressure is a little high, and she tends to put off exercising in favor of volunteering or reading a good book.

"I needed to get into something where it's a group and we meet regularly. I'm hoping that will keep me going."

Overcoming pain is key

Low-income, ethnic minorities are at higher risk for chronic disease and are less likely to exercise, so Southeast Seattle was chosen as the test site because of its racially diverse population.

Minority elders understand the health and social benefits of exercise — walking being their top choice — but many feel constrained by emotional and physical ailments. That came out in focus-group discussions during a 2003 UW study to determine suitable activity programs for ethnically diverse older adults.

"Headache, heartache, body ache," was the sentiment of one unnamed Filipino study participant, as translated from Tagalog to English.

The elders also said programs should be culturally sensitive and conveniently located, so researchers reached out to them in places where they were already comfortable — where they lived, worshipped or socialized.

In so doing, the project staff is collaborating with public-health and parks departments and the area's crime-prevention council, along with churches, businesses, ethnic and senior associations and housing managers — anybody, really, who has a heart for the work.

That includes a retired pharmacist who leads a fitness class, and the president of the local merchants association who is coaxing just about everyone he meets to start walking.

Walking and talking

But galvanizing a community isn't always easy.

Busy church leaders may not consider starting an aerobics class a high priority, for example, and bureaucracies may be reluctant or slow to make changes.

King County Metro Transit, for example, so far has turned down a request to reroute a bus to add a stop at the entrance to Seward Park. That would make access easier for senior walkers. But Metro said it would require a study and would be too expensive, and that the demand is insufficient.

The seniors themselves can be hard to motivate.

"We're trying to encourage people who haven't had a habit of exercising their whole life," said Egger.

The project, funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, includes a controlled study of older diabetic patients. Doctors assess their activity level and, if needed, write a prescription for exercise. A volunteer "phone buddy" follows up twice a month with encouragement.

On her doctor's suggestion, Lillie Lewis, 80 and a borderline diabetic, now exercises some inside her apartment building. "I'm in a big mess. I've got bad breathing. I get tired in a hurry," said Lewis.

But she's started walking up and down the hall for five minutes when she's up to it, has changed the way she eats, and recently she found a ride to the swimming pool so she can do water aerobics.

It helps to talk with her phone buddy — "It really makes me want to do it because she's encouraging."

One of the pilot project's earliest successes was at the 900-member Chinese Baptist Church, the first church to get involved. Though initially reluctant, it has become a model of how churches can address both spiritual and physical health.

Its new class, Devotion and Exercise, is taught in Cantonese and English and attracts several dozen participants, members and nonmembers alike. Eight church members have been trained as volunteer instructors.

The church now gets comments from older members. "Oh, I feel better now. I can do my garden work better or my housework or my shopping," said Herb Tsuchiya, a retired pharmacist and one of the instructors.

The Vietnamese Senior Association tells another positive story.

For years, its older immigrant members met once a week to play cards, read Vietnamese newspapers and share a hot meal — but never to exercise. Then a community organizer offered to pay the group's coordinator a small stipend to be a walking leader.

Twenty or more seniors showed up. Hesitant at first, they soon were arriving eager to walk.

"First of all I have to push them," said coordinator Khanh Nguyen. "Later they say, 'Oh, I am waiting for you.' "

Walking together seems to provide an emotional lift. "They like to talk and share their life stories with me," said Nguyen.

A flash in the pan?

The project's success will be measured partly in how many sedentary seniors like Lewis become active, how many new programs begin, and how much the physical environment — such as the accessibility of bus routes and the level of safety in parks — is improved to make exercise easier.

But the ultimate measure will be sustainability.

After the researchers have packed up and gone, will senior fitness continue to be a priority in Southeast Seattle?

"That is our goal, said Grover Haynes, 74, a Boeing retiree who regularly walks the Seward Park loop. "It depends on how hard we work at it. The potential is there."

Haynes got involved in the pilot project as a volunteer after hearing a presentation at the Genesee Merchants Association, where he's the president. "They asked me to pull as many walkers as I know together."

Every once in a while, he gets an "I can't do it." But if new recruits give it a try and continue, even on a semiregular basis, they get hooked, he said.

"They're sleeping better," he said. "The body's functioning better. The whole nine yards."

Marsha King: 206-464-2232 or mking@seattletimes.com

Coordinator of a senior walking group in Southeast Seattle