Josie recently joined the Spectrum team, in our Fall Prevention Department, as a Walk With Ease instructor. Walk with Ease is a new class offering from Spectrum and is a 1 hour daily, six-week program that helps seniors use walking as an effective tool to increase strength, improve balance and help ease the symptoms of arthritis. The Walk with Ease program was initially developed through the Arthritis Foundation and Josie had been teaching that class at the San Leandro Senior Center for 7 years before the pandemic shut it down 3 years ago. She has now joined the Spectrum team providing the program.

Josie was born in Washington D.C. in 1939 and moved to California to help her sister with her new baby in 1980 and is still here! She is a published author, and is getting ready to write her second book.

When asked what she enjoys the most about her job at Spectrum, Josie sais, “I enjoy watching older people, like myself, buy in to improving themselves and helping themselves through exercise. I watch people with canes walk better, and teach them how walking can improve their health. I like how much the participants enjoy interacting with each other, instead of being alone all the time.”  

The interactions she’s had with her colleagues at Spectrum have been wonderful. “We have such a good relationship with each other. I like that my supervisor has confidence in me. She knows that I know what I am doing and lets me do my job successfully.”

In her time outside of work, Josie likes to knit and crochet. She taught a class at the senior center called “Common Threads” where participants made hats for people fighting cancer, as well as residents at local nursing care facilities. “I still visit the rest homes and pass out the handmade blankets and other items that will be helpful for other people.” 

Josie told us that she believes organizations like Spectrum are important because “older people are often forgotten, but Spectrum is out there helping as many of them as they can. It’s a wonderful thing that so many needs are being met by Spectrum’s programs.” 

Josie’s Fall Prevention Tip is to be active as long as you can. As a cancer survivor herself, going on 84 years old, she told us, “It is up to you to continue to improve your health as much as you can. Eat healthy, and make sure you move your muscles and bones. And always do something that makes you happy.”