iMove – virtual fundraising event

The local United Way kept area residents moving this winter with, iMove, a virtual fundraising event for mental health support for youth. 

iMove kicked off Feb.8 across Windsor-Essex county and focuseds on combining physical activity and mental-health help for children and youth during the pandemic. The event ran until March 14. 

United Way invited people to set achievable fitness goals and to collect pledges to support them across Windsor-Essex. 

Karen Brady is the marketing and communications manager at United Way/ Windsor Essex County. 

“United Way has been in the community for over 75 years,” said Brady. “We have always supported the most vulnerable in the community. We normally invest every year in different initiatives from food security and food banks to mental health programs that support children and youth.  After school programs, programs that deal with stream subjects to help those who are in need, who would not have access to those programs actually to be able to participate and if they need mental health counselling then we provide that as well.” 

Brady said their goal for funding is $30,000. They are close to achieving this goal, currently reaching around $29,000 and the campaign runs until March 14. 

The event is just a virtual platform via Zoom. The hashtag #iMove4UnitedWay was used to see who are involved in this event. 

Liam Giles-Hayes is director of programs and said there is a survey that conducted across the province regarding youth mental health. 

“It found that two-thirds of youth reported as their mental health being worse since the pandemic,” said Hayes.  “The pandemic was going to be hard on individuals because parents may have been out of work for a given time. The financial support was not flowing right away. We immediately started supporting food security initiatives to make sure that people have basic need of food.”  

Local business and organizations are creating on-demand activity videos to help people move for mental health from home. 

Hayes said iMove challenge is getting everyone actively involved in our community for being physical active which can improve mental health.