Walking the extra mile for Youthline
Youth line’s annual ‘Walk the Talk’ spring fundraiser has officially started with $61,000 raised already from participants and sponsors. The initiative brings together volunteer groups and individuals to raise money to support young people’s mental health across New Zealand.
The Walk the Talk movement, set across September this year, encourages people to set a challenge to walk or move in some way for 30 days. The initiative will fund Youth line’s phone, text, and online support helpline and reach young kiwis who are struggling with mental health and need support.
One Waikato participant, Melanie Wert, has signed up to the movement with her free fitness community on Facebook, after one of her members shared the fundraiser with her, “I decided to turn it into something we could all get behind as a community,”
Wert says, “mental health is something very close to my heart,” and that she shared the idea publicly as “so many women want to lose weight and improve their fitness but can’t afford a coach or a gym membership right now.”
After struggling with her own mental health between 2017-2021, Wert discovered fitness was a step in the right direction to turning her life around, and creating a free fitness space from it would help other women feel supported.
Her community has taken part in other fitness-based charity events, such as walks for the Heart Foundation and Pride Month, and are hoping to “raise as much as we can” for Youth line.
Other organisations and online supporters such as JManGo (content creator), and ASB, who will match donations given to Walk the Talk, have gotten behind the cause, raising $61,907 so far from 1112 fundraisers and 1650 donations.
