Plenty of activities are going virtual these days, but just one is opting for “fur-tual” – The Humane Society of Kitchener Waterloo & Stratford Perth is planning a weeklong event it’s dubbed Fur-tual Wellness Week.
The event aims to let participants learn more about animal and human wellness, while engaging friends and family in a fundraising walk-a-thon to support local shelters. Running September 14-29, it will also include a webinar series.
“Our Fur-tual Wellness week is a new creative idea that we came up with given the situation that’s happening in the world right now with COVID-19 – it’s caused us to cancel a number of events due to social distancing,” said Cristina Lopes, community coordinator at the Humane Society’s Kitchener location. “We thought going virtual is a super idea for us our volunteers and our community.”
The program will be running in both Kitchener Waterloo and Stratford Perth locations, which host their own respective annual walkathons, which typically see people walking with friends and family while gathering pledges to support the organization.
“We wanted to keep that going,” said Lopes of the switch to a digital version. “People can now walk in the safety of their own neighborhood instead of coming out to a large event and walking as a group to allow people to still participate in their own capacity.”
The new webinar series is splitting the focus between mental health and wellness segments for owners and pets. “For example, we tried to get cooking classes, so maybe something that’s a little bit more healthy that people can still make in the comfort of their own home, and some fitness and nutritional tips,” she said, referring to Genuine Fitness’ session and the healthy eating session by Chef D TV.
The headliner for this year’s event is former Kitchener Rangers captain Ben Fanelli, who has used a life-threatening brain injury as a way of inspiring others to keep on going through the difficult times in their lives, an idea many can relate to given the current state of the world.
The webinar series also features focus on personal fitness classes such as a boxing seminar hosted by Darkside Muay Thai.
More information on how to participate in this year’s event can be found online.
