30×30 Active Challenge: Good medicine from Liǧʷiłdaxʷ Health Society – FNHA
Jun 11, 2025
On June 21, the Liǧʷiłdaxʷ Health Society in Campbell River will host their 13th annual 5K Run the Spit on National Indigenous Peoples Day (NIPD). Dianna Smith says that the event was originally started by Kathleen Power, a nutritionist and diabetes educator from the Mi’kmaq First Nation in Newfoundland.
Kathleen was exploring creative new and engaging ways to promote nutrition and wellness within the community. She began by hosting fitness classes, walking groups and cooking classes for members in the community who were interested. She also put together and gave away healthy food baskets with a recipe to cook nutritional meals at home with family and friends.
Dianna says that the first NIPD 5k Walk/Run came about through funding, such as the FNHA’s annual wellness grants, allowing the community to create a more well-rounded, holistic and serious walk/run group program. Lasting 12 weeks, the program included things like blood pressure and glucose monitoring to determine if there was improvement in the health and wellness of participants.
