a peek inside the fishbowl

Some time ago I received a lovely email from a Fishbowl reader named Allison.

Allison asked me if I was interested in attending a charity spinathon on February 20 as part of a Heart Month initiative. She assumed (correctly) that a gal who loves her guts as much as I do loves her heart too. :)

She wasn’t asking me to fundraise (although others are, and 100% of the proceeds go to the Heart & Stroke Foundation) just to check out the scene and maybe write about it a bit here.

Allison – a mother of two – was inspired to host a spinathon to raise funds and awareness.

Here’s more info, in her words:

In October 2008, we lost a dear friend, Wain Pindar, to a sudden heart attack at the age of 39. Wain was a loving and supportive partner and best friend for his wife Gail. Wain delighted in being a father and adored his son Emmett. He was eagerly awaiting the arrival of their second child, Hazel, who was born in November of 2008. He left us all much too soon.

     Shortly after this event, a close friend of mine who was expecting learned that her baby had a major heart defect and was going to require major open heart surgery after he was born. After two temporary stints were placed in his heart when he was only months old, he went for open heart surgery, and was given 50/50 chances of survival. Thankfully, not only was the surgery successful, but he recovered in record time.

     Both of these events had a major impact on me, especially being a new mom myself. I did not realize that heart disease could impact all ages. In fact, according to the Heart & Stroke, every day each year, 21 Ottawa residents will be hospitalized because of heart disease. I wanted to help raise money for earlier diagnoses, leading-edge treatments and world-class prevention strategies for heart-related illnesses. Our friend Wain loved biking and so I knew he would be so happy to see a spinathon in his memory. I looked at participating at such an event in Toronto but I really wanted the funds to come back to Ottawa. So, I decided to host this event.

     Last year, we had 100 participants come out to ride and raise money for the Heart & Stroke. My partner for organizing the event, Monja De Luca, was so enthusiastic and was already thinking about how to make it even better the next year! So we decided to make it an annual event, as a part of Heart Month for the Heart & Stroke.

I know people who have similar stories, I think almost everyone probably does, so my answer had to be yes, I would gladly embarrass myself for heart health awareness. I have never tried spinning before (for the uninitiated, spinning is basically riding on a stationary bike indoors, but with an instructor) and so it’s highly likely that I will fall off the bike from sheer exhaustion and have to crawl to the nearest couch, where I will melt into an unrecognizable pool of mush.

ANYWAY, can we take a second to say YAY for people like Allison and Saturday’s spinners … all of whom will be spinning their hearts out (no pun intended) for the Heart & Stroke Foundation?

And please send me your best vibes on Saturday at 3:00 p.m., and pray I don’t humiliate myself TOO much!

p.s. If you feel like making a small donation to the Heart & Stroke you may do so right here. Thank you!

This post is in honour of Kindness Week, which is just wrapping up here in Ottawa.

Rebecca over at A Little Bit of Momsense (one of my favourite local bloggers!) has been championing the cause of kindness for some time now as an official Kindness Week Blogger. She inspired me to dig up this old memory and post it here to share.

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I volunteered to help supervise a class field trip to the Gatineaus yesterday. The goal: snowshoeing.

And like every field trip, there was a little learning thrown in there too.

We learned about animals and how they dealt with winter. To summarize: they either sleep it away, tolerate it, or run away a.k.a. migrate.

We didn’t see many animals, but we knew they were there:

Almost all of the kids embraced this outing with glee. A few were sulky and tired. Others behaved as if they’d escaped from the zoo, or had 20 cups of coffee.

Heh. Did you know that I happen to be one of those loud parents who has no problem asking other people’s kids to buck up/be quiet/STOP THAT? :)

Overall, the little people did pretty well on their snowshoes … given their inherent awkwardness (the snowshoes, not the kids).

I, however, put mine on backwards.

Methinks it’s time to invest in our own. But first, we need to get more snow!

p.s. There are two great giveaways going on this week: here and here!