Walking For Charity

I had heard of, but never done anything to learn about ResQwalk, until a coworker asked me to a couple weeks ago.  If you don't know about it, it is an app you put on your device. When you are out walking or biking (any movement under something like 14 mph that is not stationary), it tracks your km/miles. You assign you distance to one of the many approved charities. At the end of the month each charity receives a portion of the money based on the portion of miles walked for them.

This month's total pool is $3850.

We are currently walking for SafePet Ottawa. This is a wonderful organization that provided foster homes for people fleeing domestic violence.

I did some research and found:
-52% of those fleeing domestic violence are forced to leave pets with the abuser (and often the pets are also victims up to 71% of them)
-up to 65% of people won't flee out of fear what will happen to their pets

Loving an animal is not a reason to continue to get hurt. Leaving an abuser is hard enough, worrying about the safety of a dog or cat will not make it easier. I love that SafePet Ottawa is helping protect animals and hopefully helping to encourage people to leave abusers.

Note: This charity is particularly near and dear to my heart as I have one brave friend who was able to leave (in her case the pet was not in danger, just her), and in another, an acquaintance was murdered by her husband because she could not leave. He is currently serving life in prison for her death.

There are a lot of great charities out there to help. Find one and get walking! (Oh and remember to turn the app on, that is something I keep forgetting to do!)