Jessi Balter felt lonely after she moved from Miami to Rockville last year for her psychology doctoral internship.

She’s far from shy — in addition to her studies, she regularly posts about fitness and coffee to her 55,000 TikTok followers. But followers are not friends.

On a solo walk in the Rio shopping center in Gaithersburg this November, Balter, 26, thought about the walks she’d take with buddies in Florida and felt particularly lonesome. Maybe, she thought, she didn’t have to be.

She whipped out her phone and posted quick TikTok, inviting people to join her for a walk at Rio a few days later.

Forty people showed up.

More walks, equally well-attended, followed.

Though what’s now called the MoCo Walking Club welcomes people of all ages and genders, most of its members are women in their 20s and 30s. With and without Balter’s orchestration, they began planning other ways to spend time together: yoga, a book club, a soccer team. Two women who met on one of the first walks are now dating.

The group grew so big so fast that Balter started a Discord channel so members — now more than 800 people — could chat and meet-up more easily. Some formed a Latino social subgroup. Others offered to babysit each others’ kids and coordinate playdates.

“I really feel like I kind of tapped into this need for community,” Balter said on a recent group walk. “Especially in your 20s, it’s pretty difficult to make friends, no matter where you live.”

A MoCo thing

Balter’s group is also a distinctly Montgomery County phenomenon.

Many on its most recent walk, in the White Oak neighborhood of Silver Spring, live in the Upcounty, and said the club fills a need for those who can’t easily join up with established groups like City Girls Who Walk, which meets in Washington, D.C.

“It’s not realistic for me to make it to Dupont Circle on a Wednesday at 7 p.m. when I get off work at 5 p.m.,” said Camila Chambo of Germantown. “But Montgomery County is so beautiful, and there’s so much here I haven’t tapped into.”

Jenna Deutch of Olney grew up in the county, moved away for college and returned — unlike most of her high school friends. She made new ones in Balter’s TikTok group.

“I’m exploring parts of the county I never knew about, and every time I come to an event, I meet someone new,” Deutch said.

That happens a lot, Balter said. “Every time someone comes to a walk, they leave with someone’s phone number, they leave with a friend, which is so cool to see.”

Friends — no strings attached

Part of what makes the group popular is that it requires no commitment and no money. But what keeps its members coming back, even in frigid temperatures, is its welcoming ethic.

Temperatures rose no higher than the mid-30s on Martin Luther King Day as the walkers, some with dogs, began gathering in a Silver Spring park.

“I think this is going to be a big one,” Balter said.

More than 30 people eventually joined the three-mile hike in Martin Luther King Jr. Recreational Park, a loop she had chosen to honor the holiday.

Sabrina Tucker, a military wife and mom who recently moved to Montgomery Village from Florida with her wife and toddler, showed up that day to nurture newly formed friendships.

“Being a young mom can be isolating, and when I moved here, I was like, ‘Oh my God. How am I ever going to meet people?’” Tucker said.

She counts on the group for banter and exercise but also for recommendations for pediatricians and dentists.

And when Tucker found out she’d have to get abdominal surgery in March, she panicked about finding someone to watch her son while she was out of commission and her wife was at work. She posted about it in the group’s Discord chat. Dozens of club members volunteered to babysit and bring food.

“Jessi has really created this whole wonderful community that wants to help each other,” Tucker said.

Balter has enlisted restaurants and fitness studios to expand the club’s offerings. Chambo said she’s taken classes she wouldn’t have tried if not for the club.

“It’s not as intimidating with a group of girls who are likeminded and people that are not gonna judge you,” she said.

As a budding clinical psychologist, Balter said she’s particularly passionate about the psychology of friendship.

But her new social circle isn’t part of an experiment.

“I was just looking for a few friends, and it really turned into such a wonderful community,” she said.