Championing the PILATES GIVES fundraiser taught me that there are many many many good hearts around! Not only did we have a number of anonymous donors, we had donors who gave more than once!
The total amount of S$5,280 from the fundraising will benefit 105 frail patients, each with three home nursing sessions for wound care, medication and other nursing procedures, minimising re-admission to hospitals.
Driving donations for a good cause through Pilates was never something I had thought of when I first embarked on the Pilates instructor certification programme back in 2014.
And who would have imagined doing Pilates workout from the comfort of your homes via Zoom?
Remarkably, one very good thing that emerged from the 2020 pandemic was a realisation that anything is possible online!
Rallying three other instructor friends, we ran two Sundays (13 and 20 December) of online Pilates classes to raise funds in support of Home Nursing Foundation. It is always more engaging when you have a group of like-minded folks just as passionate as you in a mission together.
I must say our workout programme was pretty enthralling with three instructors featured for a 50-min session. We definitely had our participants feeling stretched and breaking a sweat in our Stretch and Strengthening repertoire! With the Functional Pilates session, we ran exercises for lying and standing postures and also while sitting on a chair! Now, no one can say they can’t exercise while sitting on a chair working from home. It’s all about integrating exercise movement to your everyday life, isn’t it?
Teaching on Zoom meant we as instructors have to be very clear with our verbal cues as we are not physically there to provide tactile cues. The experience undoubtedly improve our abilities to instruct better than before!
I want to give a shout-out to The Pilates Place which came onboard as the location sponsor for the December campaign. The studio continued the spirit of giving into the new year by sponsoring separate in-studio classes in January 2021 for beginners to the Pilates Reformer equipment.
The year 2020 certainly ended on a high for me. The desire to create a community to keep our bodies active while giving back to the communities was how PILATES GIVES started. The idea was conceived during the circuit breaker while catching up via Zoom with a few good friends in fitness. Wrapping up the year with the second run of Pilates Gives in the festive Christmas spirit made it even more memorable.
Am totally grateful too that all my marketing, digital and writing skills from two decades in the corporate world didn’t go to waste. The birth of my web site and the use of all things social to promote PILATES GIVES have without a doubt kept me updated on digital analytics!
After all, no one has a crystal ball on what 2021 would look like. In the midst of the hope the vaccines could bring wrought with the naysayers of what the vaccines couldn't conquer, counting our blessings is probably the best way forward, knowing that we are in Singapore with a lot of good going on.