Moving More

Extension’s Magnolia Moves program inspires more activity, healthier living

Story by Leah Bowers | Photos by Kevin Hudson

For all those professionals who find themselves sitting in an office eight hours a day, Felicia Ball of Winston County has a message: “Get moving.”

She’s practicing what she preaches these days, and she’s ready to see the people around her—and beyond—get moving with her.

It all started because of Amy Young, the local county agent with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. When Extension’s Family, Health, and Wellness program coordinators announced that the Magnolia Moves program would kick off April 20 and continue through May 31, Young brought the news directly to the people of the county.

“The Magnolia Moves challenge is about increasing movement and healthier eating,” Young shares, “and I went to all these places to talk to people about joining. I wanted Winston County to be the top moving county, so I told everyone to recruit people, too. We can compete with ourselves or compete against each other to get the most steps.”

Winston County was indeed the top participating county in Mississippi, followed by Choctaw and Webster Counties. The fourth top participating counties had a two-way tie between Coahoma and Oktibbeha Counties, and DeSoto County took fourth.  Altogether, Mississippi participants logged almost 1.4 million minutes of physical activity during Magnolia Moves.

“Moving more makes your body feel better,” Ball affirms. “I want to move more. When all I do is sit, I can feel it in my joints; I can feel it when I stand up. 

“The challenge motivated me to do more—now I got to get my steps in. Even when I don’t feel like it, I get up and go do it.”

Participating in Magnolia Moves, Ball started stretching in the mornings and making it a point to walk to colleagues’ offices where she works as the E911 coordinator for the City of Louisville. She’s worked in the E911 Operations Center since 2005.

“I can eat healthier; I can move more to lose weight; I don’t want to jump on weight loss pills—that’s not for me,” Ball emphasizes. “With this challenge, I’ll walk to visit with someone, talk, then walk and go on another visit. Before we get to the next challenge, I want to start walking around this building and maybe even the hospital.” 

In the meanwhile, Ball is still tracking her movements and she continues walking. She already had 7,000 steps by lunchtime the day she was interviewed about Magnolia Moves, and she completed the challenge almost a month ago.

“I’m meeting new people, and the challenge makes it about fun and continuing to have fun as you keep moving,” Ball laughs. “We formed a little group—me, Amy, Jada McMichael and Patricia Whitcomb. Having this team helped me stay motivated to keep doing it—keep moving.”

Young explained that because so many people in the county embraced Magnolia Moves, she hopes even more people will get involved when Extension launches the challenge again in October.

“It has built a camaraderie within our county. At the grocery store, random people are talking about Magnolia Moves,” she says. “I was motivated, my friends were motivated; we even had the mayor participating. 

“I enjoyed using the exercises and stretches provided by the app. Being able to see how much movement my friends were logging challenged me to get up and move more myself. The whole challenge motivated me to do more.”

As a Winston County native, Young wants to inspire the entire community to get involved in Magnolia Moves. 

“These folks are my people,” she explains. “I’m going to seek them out and have everyone do Magnolia Moves with me.” 

Ball will be part of the challenge, too. 

“I’m moving more and going to keep moving more,” she says. “I’ll be part of the Magnolia Moves challenge—whatever it takes to keep me moving more and more.”

Ready to move more and eat healthier with Magnolia Moves? Get the full scoop here.