By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

NEOSHO, Mo. — Norma Wilson is a walker.

The 80-year-old Joplin resident has walked in all 50 states, earning an award from the American Volkssport Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to physical fitness through non-competitive walking.

She also walks three miles each morning with a friend.

“We meet at 6:15 and walk before anything else interferes with the day,” she said.

Wilson was one of about 35 people walking around Neosho on Sunday with the Dogwood Trailblazers, a Volkssport Association club that sponsors year-round organized walks in Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas.

Participants on Sunday chose either a 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) or 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) walk along Hickory Creek and through Neosho’s downtown area.

The club was organized in 1992 and has long encouraged what the city of Joplin is now emphasizing for its residents — exercise.

The Jasper and Newton Counties Community Health Collaborative and The Alliance of Southwest Missouri will begin encouraging residents to eat nutritious foods and exercise more frequently through the LiveSmart campaign, funded by a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health.

Ashley Micklethwaite, the grant and community benefit manager at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, previously told the Globe that LiveSmart encourages no- or low-cost exercise, such as walking.

City parks often offer good walking environments. Lighted trails in Joplin are open at Cunningham Park, Maiden Lane and 26th Street, and Leonard Park, Fifth Street and Turk Avenue, according to LiveSmart.

Indoor facilities such as Northpark Mall are also an option.

Non-competitive walks are frequently offered by the Trailblazers club. Cely Marshall, of Joplin, said she and her husband have been walking with Trailblazers for three years.