{"id":38179,"date":"2026-05-21T13:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38179"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:15:24","slug":"southlake-run-crosses-milestone-520000-fundraising-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/southlake-run-crosses-milestone-520000-fundraising-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"Southlake Run crosses milestone $520,000 fundraising mark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Community participation in the 2026 Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake made it a record-busting spring for supporting local health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers have been crunched and this year\u2019s fundraiser raised more than $520,000 for the Southlake Health Foundation, the most the event has raised in its 24-year history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are beyond thrilled with the enthusiasm, the participation, and willingness to fundraising for leading-edge care close to home at this year\u2019s Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake,\u201d said Jennifer Ritter, President & CEO of Southlake Foundation. \u201cThis event continues to be galvanizing for our communities and inspires runners and walkers from across York Region and Simcoe County to lace-up and raise funds for a cause that means so much to us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe often say at Southlake that if you don\u2019t have your health, nothing else matters, and that\u2019s a message that resonates with so many.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Dr. Paul Woods, President & CEO of Southlake Health: \u201cThe overwhelming support of our communities show Southlake Health is truly inspiring, and I\u2019m grateful for everyone who walked, ran, and fundraised during this year\u2019s event. As Southlake continues to transform care across northern York Region and southern Simcoe County over the decade ahead, our communities\u2019 ability to empower change through their caring support will be vital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake has its roots in Aurora, first hosted as the Hartwell Challenge, in memory of Councillor and runner Bob Hartwell, who died while running a marathon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hartwell Challenge took place in Aurora for more than a decade, first at the Aurora Community Centre where participants fanned out on routes throughout the neighbouring streets, then at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, where participants took over Wellington Street East. For the last decade, the event has been hosted on Newmarket\u2019s Davis Drive, home base for Southlake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two decades on, Aurora was well-represented in this year\u2019s fundraising stakes, with Aurora Montessori School taking the School Challenge Cup and the Town of Aurora itself securing the Community Spirit Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top municipal fundraiser this year was the Town of Newmarket, taking the Mayor\u2019s Challenge from last year\u2019s winners in East Gwillimbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Southlake Run looks ahead to its 25th<\/sup> anniversary, the value the event brings to the community is clear to the title sponsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a community-based business, we believe the Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake brings our values as a business to life \u2013 supporting health, encouraging wellness, and creating space for our community members to show up for one another,\u201d said Nature\u2019s Emporium CEO Steve Hollingsworth. \u201cIt\u2019s an absolute honour for Nature\u2019s Emporium to partner with Southlake Health Foundation, its volunteers, the participants, and our communities, to support leading edge care close to home through this event. We\u2019re so grateful to everyone who gave their time and their generosity to make this year such a success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Community participation in the 2026 Nature\u2019s Emporium Run for Southlake made it a record-busting spring for supporting local health care. The numbers have been crunched and this year\u2019s fundraiser raised more than $520,000 for the Southlake Health Foundation, the most the event has raised in its 24-year history. \u201cWe are beyond thrilled with the enthusiasm, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-headline_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9VN","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-28 14:57:45","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\/38179","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=38179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38180,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38179\/revisions\/38180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}