Support for Sudbury Defeat Depression event exceeds expectations
The Sudbury Defeat Depression Walk/Run returned to Bell Park on Saturday, as the COVID-19 pandemic eases and normal events resume.
The walk was rained out in 2019 and the last two years were virtual events, so organizers said they set the expectations low as participants came back to an in-person event this year.
“At first we thought maybe a hundred -- in our wildest dreams --participants signing up,” said Martin Boucher, executive director of the Northern Initiative for Social Action (NISA).
"Just week over week that limit just kept going up the response of the community was just so great."
The annual event is a national mental health fundraising campaign. It's an initiative of Mood Disorders Society of Canada that provides funds for local community health organizations.
NISA is the beneficiary in Sudbury. It's a peer support mental health service.
Initially hoping to raise $25,000, officials said more than 300 people participated Saturday and raised about $85,000, most of which will stay in Sudbury.
“A small percentage goes to the Mood Disorders Society of Canada to do some national campaigning for peer organizations and community mental health," said Boucher.
"Here in Sudbury, the thing about fundraised dollars is we can really pivot and use it as we want."
Participants on Saturday said what it comes down to is raising awareness and reminding people that they are not alone.
NISA has seen a significant increase in the need for mental health services during the pandemic and officials said Saturday's event will allow the organization to expand community outreach and ensure it can continue to provide quality programs and services.
For more information about NISA, click here or call (705) 222-6472.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.