Giving back to someone that has worked really hard to succeed is a wonderful feeling. New Leaf Physiotherapy is very glad to support our community and Kelowna (who knows this year, possibly beyond).
If you recall last year, we did a three part series of blog posts about how NLP gives back to the community. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.
Up to speed in 2017, we have already helped out a couple of people in the New Leaf community.
The first person that we helped out was a sponsorship to Linda. Linda had a total joint replacement surgery. She was determined to get the most out of her surgery, that is where NLP comes into the picture. She was very motivated but needed a guiding hand. She did marvelous! In May of 2017, Linda wanted to do a fundraiser with the YMCA, Cycle for Strong Kids Okanagan 2017. Linda contacted NLP asking if we would help her raise money for this great cause… And we did!
The second half of Part 1 is this young lady, Sharlet. Sharlet is a lady that I have known for a few years in Kelowna. Over the last year, she had a very tough struggle/ battle. She is a single Mother of 3 children 7, 5, and 3 years of age. A lot of her paycheck goes to rent and necessities and does not have much room for extras. Earlier this year, Sharlet started asking me about running. She wondered if I thought she would be able to run a half marathon, as she has not run any distance longer than 10 km in her life. My answer was an obvious, “Yes”! We sat down and had some discussions about training for the half marathon but she was not sure if she would do it.
One day, a few of months ago, Sharlet had a big smile on her face and said that she got into the SeaWheeze Half Marathon in Vancouver. It was a lottery race, there are only so many spots and a lot of people want to run it. So the date was set, August 12, 2017!
Sharlet got enough money together to buy herself a new pair of running shoes (I think she told me it was her first new pair of running shoes ever!) and started more focused training.
She has done some crazy training runs to get herself ready for this half marathon. Here is the craziest training run, that I have heard, you will know it is crazy if you live in Kelowna! She started at the Rails to Trails on on Clifton and ran up Clifton to High Road. High Road turned into Summit Drive as she went over Dilworth Mountain! After she got to the bottom of Dilworth Drive, she turned around and went back up Dilworth Drive, turn back onto Summit Drive and went over Dilworth Mountain a second time! Then down High Road, down Clifton and then down Clement to Okanagan Lake and then back to her starting point. I usually do not use a lot of exclamation points but that running route is CRAZY!! I was so impressed (I have never tried to summit Dilworth Mountain twice in one run and I have done a lot of running).
She also started coming out to the Next Step. The Next Step is a Tuesday night running group put on by the Kelowna Running Club. It is a free workout done at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna. The group meets every Tuesday night at 6 pm. We do a warm up run and some warm up exercises and then do a harder running workout. There are two groups, the main group and the advanced group. Each group gets their own workout. Sharlet has done a great job in coming out and running on the Tuesday nights.
A couple of weeks ago, after a Tuesday night Next Step workout, she stated it would be really cool to get a GPS watch for her running to see how far she had actually been running on her long runs. However, the prices of the GPS watches were simply too expensive.
I listened to our conversation, as did my girlfriend, Charlene. We got in the car to drive home, we both agreed it would be a great gift, as she has really turned over a New Leaf in her life, in any different aspects.
So after one treatment earlier this week, this happened… (sorry about the bad video, I really wanted to surprise her and it is hard to surprise someone while pointing your phone, while recording them)
She was so happy and appreciative. I am very glad to help out this wonderful woman! If you simply hang out around her will know it! Use your new Garmin watch lots, Sharlet!
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