Ever since the early years when Hallmark founder J. C. Hall regularly ended a long day’s work with a basketball or softball game for employees, Hallmark has been a fitness-minded company. More recently, health and wellness benefits have included a free fitness center, a medical clinic, the spring Health Fair, a Health & Wellness website and discounted healthy choices at Crown Room cafeterias at headquarters and other facilities. At the Lawrence manufacturing plant, a marked walking trail laid out in 2009 has been a popular feature.

Maggi Choplin and Christine Rankin, both members of Hallmark's wellness oversight team, understood the value of brisk walking to gain strength, control weight and relieve stress. And they knew, too, that walkers who head outdoors in nice weather could feel less motivated when the weather turns nasty.

So Choplin and Rankin planned five walking paths, marked with amber reflectors, that walkers could follow or use in combination to create their own routes. They knew that some serious walkers want to know how far they’ve gone, so the routes were measured and the distances included on a map.

“People have been really positive about the paths,” Choplin says. “At Hallmark, we have a culture of wellness, but we understand that different people have different goals. We want to encourage everybody to do what works for them … and then do just a little bit more.”

Walkers appreciate the support they get, and they say Hallmark gets better employees in return. Renée Edinger has been walking for more than 10 years at Hallmark headquarters. She says job stress vanishes with her twice-daily aerobic walks with friends. “You get tense at a computer all day,” she says. “Your shoulders and neck tighten up. But when I get up and walk, it relieves all that. It helps my mental attitude, and my boss is all for it.”

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