{"id":29088,"date":"2021-04-09T22:41:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T02:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29088"},"modified":"2021-04-16T00:14:46","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T04:14:46","slug":"southlake-challenge-offers-flexibility-in-showing-support-for-local-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/southlake-challenge-offers-flexibility-in-showing-support-for-local-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Southlake challenge offers flexibility in showing support for local hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since the start of the global pandemic, every day has been a marathon all its own for the doctors, nurses and staff at Southlake Regional Health Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a third wave and a third lockdown, support for the local hospital is needed now more than ever through the Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake Virtual Challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The virtual Run for Southlake kicks off this Monday, April 12, running for four weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s challenge is divided into sections for each of the four weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first week, Eat Well with Southlake, focuses on nutrition with professionals from Nature\u2019s Emporium providing programming on \u201cfoods that fuel you\u201d while participants will be encouraged to set their own nutritional goal for the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second, Make it a Habit with Southlake, builds on the lessons from the first week with a focus on \u201chow often you want to move this week\u201d working on \u201cyour long-term health by making fitness a consistent part of your routine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the [sessions] are doing is reflecting on how this experience is a journey, a process, and that is where nutrition flows into consistency,\u201d says Melanie Osmond of the Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation. \u201cWe start with getting our energy and our nutrition\u2026on track before we look into being consistent. On our first day [of this segment] we have a session with the Sports Medicine Centre of Excellence (in Newmarket) where they are talking about activity-related injuries and prevention, running a session on how to make sure you\u2019re safe when you\u2019re getting back into exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to underscoring the staples of stretches and cooldowns, it is also about making sure \u201cyou\u2019re not going too hard too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur second week will make sure the education is there, that people aren\u2019t looking to move mountains until they are ready to do so,\u201d says Ms. Osmond, noting the third week will have a focus on building endurance, setting fitness goals on what fits your schedule best. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at that end goal of fitness. Sometimes if you\u2019re running a marathon, they start by moving often and going for an hour at a time before looking at how far can I go? It is that sort of journey, but we\u2019re also looking at a comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSouthlake is here every day; we are here for you as a hospital, as your community health care system, and we are there to support you when you need us. We\u2019re hoping that by spending time with us, that is a mindful time you\u2019re giving back and are able to reflect back on that experience; that is time that Southlake is open and available and building up that endurance is something our hospital had to do that entire past year\u2026 while ramping up with a growing community as well. We\u2019re bringing that tie-in and that year of the hospital and the actual exercise and event itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event itself, due to COVID-19, is very different this year \u2013 as it was last year when the event was retooled to a virtual format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the challenges of translating such a popular in-person event for something that fits our new normal, Aimee Houston of the Foundation says there is no shortage of opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have great activity in our 5K and people love that aspect of a live event, but we\u2019re in a pandemic and gathering in groups is something we don\u2019t see in the near future, at least not the size of groups we have historically cultivated for the run in-person,\u201d she says. \u201cLike so many other events and fundraising initiatives, I think virtual is just so much more palatable for people\u2026and it is a great opportunity to engage all people, not just people in our area, supporting Southlake because they have a family member [who has been treated at Southlake] and maybe they couldn\u2019t be on site physically to do the run or walk. The pandemic has changed a lot of perspectives that way in providing more opportunities for people, whether it is geographically in a different location or just having different interests other than walking or running.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, at the end, they want to stay true to the tried: maintaining a distance-based challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to bring that in to have that sense of normalcy and to give people that comfort, but wanting to understand that in this day and age and the times we\u2019re facing, people can literally do anything,\u201d adds Ms. Osmond. \u201cYou can go for a swim, a bike ride, walk in the trails, there are so many opportunities here. This gives us the flexibility to engage everyone that we [haven\u2019t before] and it is definitely something we\u2019re looking at moving forward on how we can keep the inclusivity of the event to make it open to more opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants can register for the 2021 Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake Virtual Challenge through the second week of the initiative. To date, more than $45,000 has been raised towards the Southlake Foundation\u2019s goal of $175,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, including registration and sponsorship, visit runforsouthlake.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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