{"id":17009,"date":"2017-04-12T17:05:50","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T21:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17009"},"modified":"2017-04-12T17:05:50","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T21:05:50","slug":"walk-for-wellness-raises-funds-for-seniors-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/walk-for-wellness-raises-funds-for-seniors-programming\/","title":{"rendered":"Walk for Wellness raises funds for seniors programming"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keeping the body moving is important at any age: just ask Aurora\u2019s seniors.
\nMultiple generations walked side-by-side Saturday at the walking track in the Aurora Family Leisure Complex for the annual Walk for Wellness, put on by Community and Home Assistance to Seniors, or CHATS.
\nHeld for the first time in Aurora after years at Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket, CHATS teamed up with Activate Aurora to help promote a healthy and active lifestyle for seniors in the community.
\nRon Weese, Executive Director of Activate Aurora, said events like these are crucial for getting seniors engaged both socially and physically.
\n\u201cGetting out and being active is important at any age,\u201d said Weese. \u201cNo matter what the activity is, as long as it gets you moving.\u201d
\nCHATS, having grown to almost one-thousand volunteers and staff since its implementation in 1980, provides home care and community programs to more than 7,700 seniors and caregivers in York Region and South Simcoe each year.
\nExamples include adult day programs, assisted living, Meals on Wheels, and transportation.
\nAll money raised for the event, brought in through donations to the walking participants, went directly to providing these crucial programs and services.
\nFor the first time in eight years, the Walk officially partnered with organizations throughout the community to bring the event to life, namely Activate Aurora, the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association, the Town of Aurora, and Club Aurora Fitness Centre.
\nTim Jones, Director of Development for CHATS, said it was these partnerships that made the Walk one of the most successful yet.
\n\u201cEveryone came up huge this year. We\u2019re definitely going to be continuing with partnerships in the future.\u201d
\nAlso on hand was Shawn Nisbet, Aurora\u2019s Nordic pole walking extraordinaire who provided a free workshop, as well as Gord McCallum, a local registered massage therapist.
\n\u201cEvents like this don\u2019t happen without help and volunteering from a lot of people,\u201d said Jones. \u201cIt\u2019s good to see the community come together to help such a great cause.\u201d
\nMP Kyle Peterson, who couldn\u2019t join the walk due to a sprained ankle, stopped by to support what he called \u201can organization that does great work for such a large community.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m already looking forward to next year\u2019s event,\u201d said Peterson. \u201cHopefully I\u2019ll be able to walk by then!\u201d
\nMPP Chris Ballard said through speaking with York Region\u2019s seniors, and the children of those seniors, he can see the importance of events like the Walk that raise funds for the cause.
\n\u201cImproving the lives of our seniors is something that often is overlooked, but with those at CHATS, it\u2019s at the top of their minds. I like to mention CHATS as often as I can in Queen\u2019s Park, but these people are actually here in the community making a difference.\u201d
\nTo learn more about CHATS, visit www.chats.on.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keeping the body moving is important at any age: just ask Aurora\u2019s seniors.
\nMultiple generations walked side-by-side Saturday at the walking track in the Aurora Family Leisure Complex for the annual Walk for Wellness, put on by Community and Home Assistance to Seniors, or CHATS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017-04-12-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4ql","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 15:27:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}