When you're walking and talking, it does not feel like exercise.

That is what Cheryl Walendziewicz, 60, likes best about the Wise Walk program of Pleasant Hills Public Library in which participants meet at the library once a week to walk at their own pace for an hour in the neighborhood or, if the weather is bad, at nearby Century III mall.

The free, 10-week program is an initiative of AARP, the Allegheny County Library Association and Highmark's People Able to Lend Support program.

Other South Hills public libraries offering Wise Walk programs now or soon include: Bridgeville, Green Tree, Whitehall, Bethel Park, Brentwood, South Fayette and Carnegie Library of McKeesport.

In Pleasant Hills, the 15 middle-aged to senior walkers may choose to walk at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays or at 9 a.m. Wednesdays, or both, through the second week of June. Walkers do not have to live in the borough.

While Mrs. Walendziewicz said she walks to be heart healthy and lose weight, Cheryl Sirianni, 50, said she walks for overall well-being.

Both Pleasant Hills women like the weekly commitment to exercise.

"There are people who prefer to walk with others for camaraderie and safety, and this provides incentive," said library program coordinator Shirley Gealy, who also walks a couple of times a week.

Participants receive a walking guide, Wise Walk T-shirts, bottled water and pedometers, or step counters.

Mrs. Gealy is looking to get a physical fitness trainer to demonstrate proper warm-up techniques.

When a stroll around the neighborhood is completed, walkers gather at the program room in the library to snack on fruit cups and granola bars provided by the county.

Mrs. Gealy said she hopes that this, the second year of the program, ends as the first did: "We all went to breakfast. We were friends -- and in better shape -- when it was all done," she said.

To join, call the library at 412-655-2424.