There are lots of families who love the annual Get Outdoors (GO!) hiking and summer reading program offered by WellSpan Health and area libraries, which kicks off this week across the region.
And then there is the Rankin family of York County.
THE RANKINS REALLY LOVE GO!
In fact, they enjoy it so much that Tracee and George Rankin, and their sons, Tristan, 12, and Emerson, 10, of Glen Rock, have done the program every summer for nine years. The Rankins love GO! so much that last year, they did every single GO! hike offered in Adams, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties.
The rambling Rankins did 80 hikes in six weeks, finding 80 GO! wooden posts scattered across 80 parks. They walked a whopping distance of 110.32 miles.
In WellSpan territory terms, that’s akin to hiking from WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital to WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital, then marching down the road to WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital. (And then walking an extra six miles, just for fun.)
“Everybody can do it!” said Tracee Rankin, who never hiked before participating in the GO! program but ended up gradually losing 100 pounds and exercising regularly with her family after they started hiking to posts. “It’s wonderful for your mind, it’s wonderful for your soul, it’s wonderful for your health and it’s wonderful for your family.”
GO! is designed to exercise both the body and the mind, as it gets families outside, doing activities together, talking, walking and checking out library books.
“We want to encourage families to do things as a group, not sit in front of the TV but get outdoors and find new places to explore,” said Sandra Gladfelter, WellSpan health educator. “We want families to build great memories and find great places to visit in their county.”
GO! promotes reading and physical activity through the hobby of letterboxing, in which families follow written clues to locate wooden marker posts that have been hidden in parks in counties in the WellSpan region. This year, the posts all have etchings on them of animal or bird tails, which corresponds to this year’s GO! theme of “Tales and Tails,” which focuses on stories about animals.
Families can pick up a booklet with the clues to find the posts in a particular county at any library in Adams, Franklin, Lebanon and York counties. In Lancaster County, participating libraries are Ephrata Public Library and Adamstown Area Library. The booklets also offer reading suggestions of books that correspond with the theme and include some facts about the animals featured on this year’s posts (“Is a zebra a white animal with black stripes or a black animal with white stripes?”). The event gives children a chance to win prizes at the completion of the program.
In past years, participants were asked to make a rubbing of the etching on the posts to record their visits. Last year, due to the pandemic, the program shifted to a touch-free, digital method of logging visits via an app called Beanstack, which is part of the program this year. Participants also can record their visit by writing down a four-digit code featured on each post. Children have a chance to win prizes at the completion of the program.
Gladfelter said the GO! programs are a wonderful partnership with WellSpan, area libraries and area parks, which all work together to create a fun, summertime activities for area families. The programs also create communities via the Facebook pages hosted by each county GO! program, on which participants can post photos of their visits and share tips on how to find posts.
“The pages are very active. People will post, ‘I am at this park and I can’t find the post,’ and someone else will get online and help them out,” Gladfelter said. “It’s like a fun club.”
Tracee Rankin said the program has provided them with hours of family time. During their hikes, they have stumbled upon Civil War re-enactments in Gettysburg, an outdoor play in Ephrata and live music in in York County.
“It has had a huge, significant impact on our family’s life,” she said. “It gives us cool places to go. It gives us a new way of looking at the area. Now hiking has become the norm for us. We talk and hang out and exercise. It’s a beautiful way to bond and have fun.”
For more information: GO! begins June 1 in Adams and York counties; June 5 in Lancaster County; and June 7 in Franklin and Lebanon counties.