By Garrett Kroeger, LMTonline.com / Laredo Morning Times
Block Gonzalez is exercising and cleaning up the city with Walk with Da Block, which was created on Facebook by his friend, Lou, to hold him accountable on his weight loss journey.
Block Gonzalez is exercising and cleaning up the city with Walk with Da Block, which was created on Facebook by his friend, Lou, to hold him accountable on his weight loss journey.
Block Gonzalez is exercising and cleaning up the city with Walk with Da Block, which was created on Facebook by his friend, Lou, to hold him accountable on his weight loss journey.
Block Gonzalez is exercising and cleaning up the city with Walk with Da Block, which was created on Facebook by his friend, Lou, to hold him accountable on his weight loss journey.
Walk with Da Block strives to beautify the city while exercising
Block Gonzalez loves Laredo and wants to see it thrive. He is also on a weight-loss journey. So, he decided to combine the two with Walk with Da Block.
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Walk with Da Block is a Facebook page that helps keep Gonzalez committed and truthful to his weight-loss voyage. But it plays another role that has helped the Gateway City.
There are dozens upon dozens of areas and locations around Laredo that need cleaning primarily picking up litter. The city cannot do it all on its own, so Gonzalez and others have decided to help Laredo stay clean with Walk with Da Block.
Me and my friend, Lou, got together, and we talked about how (Laredo) was kind of messy, Gonzalez said. We both have been training to lose weight and stuff. So, we were like why dont we knock out two birds with one stone? So, we decided lets do some walking on Sundays and clean up areas.
We like our town and want to keep it nice.
Last Sunday was the eighth Walk with Da Block event. The walks started before Thanksgiving. The first place that Gonzalez and his wife along with Lou and his sister cleaned up was North Central Park. The latest site was Chacon Bat Park on the south side of Laredo.
Its kind of cool, Gonzalez said. We start at 8 in the morning, and we get a lot of joggers. A lot of people are like, Thank you very much.
The group that walks with Gonzalez has gotten bigger and bigger since the first event. More and more of his friends have joined in.
Gonzalez does not randomly choose which areas of the city to help clean. He listens to the residents of Laredo by asking people on the Laredo Sobriety and I Love Laredo Facebook pages where the group should head next.
We just ask people if they know of any place that needs to be cleaned, Gonzalez said. We have had people tell us that Slaughter Park needs to be cleaned. So, we go and clean up that area. We go on a good two-hour walk and just clean up the areas we go to.
Gonzalez hopes to clean parts of downtown after the holiday season because he knows it could become messy due to how hectic it can be this time of year.
Gonzalez finds it rewarding to help keep up Laredo. Yet that is not the only satisfying feeling he gets from the walks. The strolls are also set up to try and help people stay sober in whatever challenge they are facing.
We also try to help people, Gonzalez said. With sobriety, we dont mean just drugs and alcohol. Sometimes with sobriety, you must stay away from certain foods. What we started doing was we created the Facebook page to help keep us accountable.
Ive been on a journey. Ive lost almost 200 pounds. So, my friend, Lou, told me he created the Walk with Da Block page to keep me accountable. We help people. If people need help, we will help you. We will talk with them or just motivate them.
Gonzalez is unsure if there will be another Walk with Da Block event before the New Year. He said there is a possibility to have one on Sunday. It just depends on how the holidays go.
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If someone wants to get involved, Gonzalez recommends visiting the Walk with Da Block Facebook page to see what location they will be cleaning up next.
gkroeger@lmtonline.com | Twitter: @gkroegs
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