An excellent opportunity to focus on both physical and mental health during the month of February has the attention of the Kerrobert Culture and Recreation. 

The “Push-Up Challenge” is being put on by The Canadian Mental Health Association from February 1st to the 23rd and Kerrobert Rec. Director Marli Shepherd is on board with hopes more folks will take on the challenge. 

“I decided to sign up just to try and promote our community to get moving, and it always is wonderful to do something that benefits mental health. Mental health is an important thing and I feel like more and more people are hopping on that, and if we can do some challenge and motivate a few people, then I feel that’s great.” 

The goal of the Push Up Challenge is to complete 2000 push-ups which represents the 20% of Canadians who will experience a mental illness every year.  

Just over a week before the challenge begins, Shepherd says the buzz is slowly growing. 

“I've talked to a few people that I know that might be into it and they've already signed up as individuals, so they're looking for team members to be affiliated with our team, but you don't have to be affiliated with our team either. It just is something that I thought we could do to try and push everybody to get a little bit more active and just to spread the positive message for mental.” 

It’s the first time Shepherd and many others have attempted this, but the end goal is ultimately raising awareness and keeping active which greatly improves mental health overall. 

“I'm pretty new to it. I just thought why not, it's not hurting anything, it’s not costing us anything. It's just a way to promote it, so I encourage other communities to hop on board and do the same thing.” 

Push-ups are the prioritized exercise but can be substituted for other forms. A goal of $1000 is set, but funds aren’t the real focus. The main objective is to ultimately challenge yourself and foster better mental health outcomes in Canada.