The club offers three age groups: four to six, seven to nine and 10 to 12. The runners meet at V.K. Greer Memorial Public School for warm-ups, trail runs and group discussions during the five-day sessions. Group leader Robin Mounsteven, a teacher at V.K. Greer, said they’ve had an amazing first week. While they’re nearing capacity for their oldest group in week two, they have some openings available in the younger categories. No matter the age group, the focus of the club is not to be competitive but instead to work on personal health, both physical and mental.

“We utilize a magnificent trail system attached to V.K. Greer Public School,” Mounsteven said. “This is an opportunity, one, for us to connect to nature. Two, to get our children active and staying engaged with their own understanding of physical fitness.”

To help guide the group discussions, Mounsteven uses his five Ps of running: positivity, pace, progress, perseverance and patience. He always aims to show kids how these concepts apply to exercise and life in general. He said it’s been beautiful to see the dialogue the ideas have inspired, all the way from the group’s youngest members up to its oldest.

A little over half of the participants are students from V.K. Greer, so the kids who know the trails help the students from other local schools, he said. He’s seen many friendships form, adding to the supportive and collaborative environment of the club.

“We’re not interested in first seconds, thirds, lasts,” he said. “We’re interested in personal bests and building on the progress that we’ve had, either throughout the years prior or throughout our small time together this year.”

The club has grown to over 60 participants this year. The club costs $100 for one week or $180 for two weeks, but help is available for those who need it. The cost covers the running program, the end-of-season celebration and a neon yellow shirt, which helps identify the runners on the trail and out in the community.

Kids Run Club partnered with the Children’s Foundation of Muskoka to offer financial assistance to about a quarter of the runners. The club started offering support last year in hopes of getting more interested families involved, regardless of their financial background.

Mounsteven prefers to keep each session at around 16 participants to ensure he can connect with each child in an authentic way. He also has eight student volunteers to help lead sessions.

“Our student volunteers have been exceptional,” he said. “I don’t know if at 12 and 13 years old, as a Grade 7 or Grade 8 student, I would want to be giving up the first two weeks of my summer, but I’ve had this really dedicated group.”

The volunteers have been polite, punctual and responsive, so he plans to make a point of honouring them at the club’s end-of-season barbecue. The celebration on July 11 is ultimately more of a community gathering than a run club exclusive, Mounsteven said. It’s a chance to celebrate the runners, volunteers and their various supporters.

The Stevenson Lions Club, the Port Sydney/Utterson & Area Chamber of Commerce and a range of local businesses have contributed to their success. Mounsteven said it’s reassuring to see business owners and community groups recognize the importance of programs like the run club.

“It’s been really heartwarming seeing the members of our community really standing up for the kids and for what we’re doing,” he said.

Mounsteven invites parents to come out and engage with the group, and to further promote family togetherness, the club is offering a raffle as part of the celebration. Runners get one ticket automatically, and they can complete a Kids Run Club colouring page or take a picture with the sponsorship board for extra entries. Prizes include Blue Jays tickets, a kayak and other prizes to promote family fun.

Mounsteven created the club as an offshoot of the Mary Lake Marathon, which he launched alongside his wife Jacqueline in 2021. Since then, the event has supported a local girl’s health journey as well as playground equipment and musical gear for V.K. Greer.

The most recent marathon combined the usual run around Mary Lake with an online auction. It raised $2,500 for the parent council at V.K. Greer, which Mounsteven serves on alongside his teaching duties. The council agreed to spend the money on an accessible swing for the playground.

“It’s been purchased, it’s going up, and it’s going to be able to be well loved for years to come,” he said.

The marathon, with the new auction component, and the run club will both continue. Mounsteven and his wife, who assists with the club as well, are hoping to expand the run club concept to include sessions for adults and disabled people.

For now, they’re just happy to see the momentum of the kids’ club as well as the positive feedback. Kids Run Club parent Meghan O’Neill said it’s a truly remarkable group.

“My son has been a part of this program since it began, and he asks about it all year,” she said. “He can’t wait to go and is always so proud of what he is able to accomplish.”

She commends Mounsteven and his wife for the experience they’ve been able to put together. Her son can’t wait to put on his club t-shirt and go for a run, during the summer season and beyond.

“The program fosters a sense of community that is welcoming to anyone and promotes nothing but growth and positivity,” O’Neill said. “The hard work and dedication that goes into this program is contagious.”

Port Sydney Teacher Creates Kids Run Club

The post Week Two Of Kids Run Club From July 7 To 11 Nearing Capacity appeared first on Muskoka411.

Redmond’s journey started in Halifax on March 26, and he plans to continue until he reaches Victoria, BC. He was inspired to create a “movement for movement” after getting hit by a car at age 15. He was lying in the hospital at risk of losing his leg, thinking of figures like Canadian athletes Terry Fox and Rick Hansen, when he made a promise to himself. If he kept his leg, he would run across Canada someday. After roughly 12 surgeries, he kept his leg, and now, he’s keeping his promise.

“I want to show all of Canada what a successful patient is,” Redmond said. “Now, the best way that I can show it myself is to get out there and show people what I have done on a leg I almost lost. I am up to over 31,000 kilometres between walking across Canada, biking across Canada, and now running across Canada.”

At age 53, Redmond said most people doing these “outrageous events” traversing Canada are about half his age, but he feels like he just keeps getting stronger. Looking back at the accomplishments of walking and biking across the country help remind him of what he’s capable of doing, though the commitment to running does make it the toughest trip yet.

Still, it exemplifies the point he’s trying to make that exercise is a critical part of health. Every time a person exercises, they’re asking their inner mechanics for an upgrade, he said, and he aims to upgrade continuously. 

The conversations he has with the people along the way focus on his tenets of health, mobility and recovery, but each talk changes based on the people he meets. Different parts of his mission speak to different people, and he’s motivated to meet as many people as possible.

“I’m really pushing exercise that mind, exercise that body and exercise that spirit. It’s important for your health,” he said. “When all those are equally exercised, you’re a lot healthier for it.”

With the recent snowfall, Muskoka gave Redmond a lot to contend with. He stayed in Orillia for an extra two days due to the forecasts of additional snow, and the towering snowbanks required some special navigating once he made his way north. He said walking through the tunnels of ice surrounding the sidewalks felt like walking through the halls of the Death Star.

Redmond is always ready to keep moving, but he can’t say the same for his equipment. After about 5,400 kilometres, a bracket on one of his cart’s wheels broke. He shared his predicament online, and JSW Manufacturing in Bracebridge invited him in for repairs. 

The cart is what allows him to carry two tents, a battery pack, a solar panel, a sleeping bag, a small foam mattress, food, water and more. He figures he needs to get a bigger cart or start pushing a tank across Canada, but for now, the cart will get him where he needs to go.

That said, he hasn’t used his tent since early December. He tented back in Innisfil during a freezing rain event, but since then, he’s stayed in a house, a hut, a garage, a motel and now a bed and breakfast.

“I’ve had very generous offers of people offering me a good place to pull in, but I do know there’s going to be points where I’m going to be in between and that might be next to impossible,” Redmond said. “I’ll prepare a tent, and I do have a propane heater, a sleeping bag that’s good to minus 30, and lots and lots of hand warmers.”

With -26 forecast for the weekend, he has to decide exactly how far to go. He won’t take any special risk to get here or there by a specific time, but just in case, he bought boots and mittens to add to his arsenal of warmth.

The intensity of his trip doesn’t allow for a lot of sightseeing, but Redmond has been blown away by the height of the snowdrifts in the region. It really struck him when he saw the amount that had collected on the giant yellow Muskoka chair in Gravenhurst. From afar, it looks like a regular lawn chair with snow, he said, chuckling at how small he looked in comparison. 

“It’s see as you go, see as you move along,” he said. “What you see is what you get in this journey, because there’s really not a lot of time to explore like I would like to, but certainly taking those dips in and out of communities really is another exploration altogether of meeting people and communities you’ve never experienced before.”

Redmond said the best part of the trek is undoubtedly the people, which is why the hardest part is feeling like he isn’t reaching as many of them as he would like. He always says, “The more we move, the more we move others.” He wants to spread that message and give Canadians the best opportunity to be inspired by themselves and accomplish their goals.

For people with complex health challenges, those goals may look different. He knows what it’s like to lay in the hospital and have hopes of healing and moving forward. His hospital dream of keeping his leg came true, and he wants to help others reach and surpass their hospital dreams.

Just above Gravenhurst, Redmond crossed the same number of kilometres travelled by Terry Fox in his iconic Marathon of Hope. It’s emotional for him to be able to surpass that milestone in honour of one of his heroes. He identified so much with Fox’s story as a young man facing potential limb loss, so he plans to continue using the legs and the life he’s blessed to have to keep spreading a message of health and hope.

His other hero Rick Hansen, a track and field athlete and wheelchair user, wheeled across Canada as part of the Man in Motion World Tour, also inspired by Fox. He travelled a total of 40,075 kilometres, which is equal to the circumference of the Earth, so Redmond would love to reach that number someday. 

He’s already gone more than 31,300 kilometres, so he’s well on his way to yet another personal triumph. It’s all been possible thanks to the various people and businesses that helped him on his travels, so he wants to extend his gratitude to every single one of them.

“I’m coming up on nine months on the road, and I could not at all have gotten this far without the support of people along the way,” Redmond said. “It just wouldn’t have happened, so that’s the most amazing thing.”

To learn more about the Fellow in Yellow and his journey, visit his website.

The post Fellow In Yellow Passes Through Muskoka During Run Across Canada appeared first on Muskoka411.

Teacher Robin Mounsteven started the run club after seeing interest from students during recess at V.K. Greer Memorial Public School. The feedback was great after the first summer, and with a four-year-old and five-year-old at home, he understands the need for local children’s activities. When he and his wife sat down to talk about summer pastimes, they agreed that they wanted their kids to do something health-focused and outdoors, so he said the run club fit the bill for their family and hopefully will for others too. The club will offer sessions in the first two weeks of July for kids ages four to 12.

“I want to continue seeing our community strive to be healthy, and well-being is really at the forefront of what we’re doing in the school,” Mounsteven said. “We’re finding that for kids to even be able to do math or sit down and read a book or learn about the solar system, they need to be able to do that from a nourished standpoint, so well-being and taking care of kids before they even enter into the classroom is really important.”

The families at V.K. Greer and the community at large have given the club a warm reception, so he’s excited to bring it back to the trails at the school. The run club gets kids outside for one-hour sessions that start and end with group discussions during warm-up and cool-down. They talk about health and exercise as well as life skills like perseverance.

The club costs $90 for one week or $160 for two weeks, and financial support is available if needed. Last year, Mounsteven found that many families were interested in sending sets of siblings, so he decided to increase the age range by a year to include more kids. Still, the club is open to children of all abilities and levels of running experience.

“We want to expand and bring back some of those 11-year-olds last year who know the program, who are familiar with the trail system, who can guide some of our younger runners through,” he said, “and so we have opened it up to the 12-year-olds as well.”

The Mary Lake Marathon, a fundraiser founded by Mounsteven in 2021, is presenting the run club. In its first year, the marathon raised over $27,000 for a local girl facing surgery. The next year, the event raised $6,000 for the kindergarten playground at V.K. Greer.

The money allowed staff to purchase four pieces of playground equipment. Since the run club meets at the school, families pass by them at the beginning and end of each session.

“I know that there’s going to be parents who are stopping off with younger kids and using those different stations, so from my standpoint, that makes me super proud to be able to see my hard work come to fruition,” Mounsteven said. “Not only my hard work but the kindergarten team and people at the school board level that worked hard to make that come together.”

For the most recent marathon in November 2023, Mounsteven fundraised for the music department at the school. He teaches gym, health, drama and music, so he decided to use the fundraiser to share one of his passions with his students and raised enough to buy a class set of ukuleles. 

V.K. Greer is unique in being one of the few public schools with an orchestral band, so when money was left over, he went to the head of the music department and offered the funds to fill any gaps. They ended up purchasing eight orchestral music stands for the program.

While the Mary Lake Marathon and the Kids Run Club certainly go hand in hand, each one is an important initiative in its own right. Mounsteven hopes that the positive impact will allow each of them to grow in tandem.

“We’re going to continue with both of them,” he said. “I love to see both of them flourishing in their own respects, but expanding them to include more people from the community from year to year is always our objective.”

To sign up a child for the Kids Run Club, click here. For updates on the Kids Run Club and the Mary Lake Marathon, visit the marathon’s Facebook page.

The post Registration Open For Second Annual Kids Run Club appeared first on Muskoka411.

The club’s initial session ran the first two weeks of July with 30 participants, who were split into three age groups. Mounsteven got the idea for the club while teaching physical education at V.K. Greer Memorial Public School in Utterson. After seeing some of the lethargy and lack of connection with nature that followed the lockdowns and closures of the pandemic, he wanted to offer kids a new avenue for success. That led him to start a running club at recess, which got dozens of kids out on the trail. 

“We would have 40 or 50 different kids out running the trail at recess,” Mounsteven said. “I wanted to extend that into the summer and give kids the opportunity to just start achieving some of their healthy active living goals in a place where they feel comfortable.”

Mounsteven is also the organizer behind the Mary Lake Marathon, which first launched in 2021. In its inaugural year, the marathon raised over $27,000 for a local three-year-old’s medical costs. The second annual event raised $6,500 for the kindergarten playground at V.K. Greer, which is where he’s now hosting the run club.

He sees the club as a natural extension of the marathon. Each of them combines his passion for running and working with children. He plans to continue offering the Kids Run Club and hopes to expand the idea into other demographics like older adults or people with disabilities.

“It’s all part of one big push to get people active and understanding their health and the power of it,” he said.

The sessions start with time for free play. Mounsteven sets out equipment like baseball gloves, skipping ropes, soccer balls and more so that kids can start warming up with whatever activity interests them. After that, the group gathers to start their daily discussion. 

The group discussions focus on Mounsteven’s five Ps of running: positivity, pace, progress, perseverance and patience. They talk about one a day with the aim of getting the kids to think about their health as well as the way each concept can apply to other parts of life. 

The runners then get into smaller groups for warm-up activities before going over trail safety and heading out for their run. Afterward, they stretch and reflect on what they achieved. He asks each of the runners to make a goal for themselves, whether it’s running-specific or not. For some, it could be a chance to build endurance, while others may simply be looking to make new friends.

“It’s a beautiful thing watching different kids get together, some who know each other, some don’t, but we all have this kind of common goal,” he said. “It came from this awesome place of just being active and talking about our health.”

The group celebrated the end of the two-week program with a barbecue on July 14. Along with offering the same games and activities they participated in throughout the two weeks, he also got families, sponsors and participants out on the 1.3-kilometre trail together.

“I want to bring everybody on to that trail to experience it because I think it needs to be experienced and utilized,” he said. “Those spaces are an absolute gift that we have living in Muskoka, and I want to showcase that.”

Their collective time on the trail was just one way families were incorporated into the club. Some parents volunteered to join the group and having parents there, running, struggling and persevering just like the students, helped inspire the kids even more, he said. Children are more apt to try when they see their parents doing it, and many of the kids brought the skills they learned back home with them.

“I’ve heard a lot of stories about how the kids have gone home and they got grandpa to go for a walk with them or they got their dad to go for a bike ride,” Mounsteven said. “That kind of healthy active living has transferred into their home life, so that’s really encouraging too.”

Julie Campbell saw those connections firsthand as her two sons participated in the run club. Jasper, 7, and Ollie, who is just shy of 6, both loved having Mounsteven as a teacher, so Campbell jumped at the chance to have her boys participate in the club when she saw that he was running it.

“He really is a really positive, encouraging person,” she said. “I’ve noticed too, just with the other kids in the club, if they ask him a question, he gets down on their level, looks them in the eye [and he’s] just really intentional about connecting.”

The daily discussions Mounsteven led with the group often continued at the Campbell family dinner table. They talked about the five Ps and their goals, which for Jasper was not having to be first while Ollie set out to establish a good pace for himself. Jasper has a natural affinity for running, she said, so it’s been a good outlet for him in multiple ways.

“He’s got a ton of energy, and so to have this in a controlled environment to kind of harness it in a positive way has been really good,” Campbell said. “He’s just more regulated when he can get his energy out in this really positive setting.”

Even though Ollie is less interested in running, the club has been a great experience for both of them, as evidenced by their clothing habits. Mounsteven had the runners wear their t-shirts to the club each day, but the boys don’t seem to want to take them off.

“My kids have been obsessed with these things,” Campbell said. “It’s really made them feel part of something. They’ve never really been on a team sport where they’ve had a jersey, so this has sort of that feeling.”

Campbell said she plans to continue enrolling the boys in the run club, and she hopes to get the family involved in future Mary Lake Marathons as well. She encourages other families to consider joining the group, even if they’re not confident about their running abilities. The club is accessible to all skill levels, so there’s no reason to feel intimidated, especially with Mounsteven at the helm.

“It’s also just been a great way to pace our summer, just to get us out in the morning, we’ve done that, and we can come home and reset,” she said. “If someone’s on the fence, [I would] encourage them to give it a try because it’s very doable and manageable, and it’s totally geared towards the kids.”

For updates on the Kids Run Club and the Mary Lake Marathon, visit the marathon’s Facebook page.

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