Designed to educate and motivate, Spear’s #LetsKeepMoving Blog is our official stream of fitness tips, exercise advice, and healthy lifestyle inspiration. Our articles and features are written and produced in direct partnership with our physical and occupational therapists! Disclaimer
Recent times have called for us to pay more attention to important social causes. One thing that has been highlighted is the lack of diversity and inclusion in the physical therapy and occupational therapy fields. At SPEAR, we are committed to to serving diverse communities, and want to ensure we are doing our part to contribute to a community of clinicians that come from different backgrounds and experiences. We wanted to find an actionable, direct way to help transform the profession—and so we created a fundraiser: our Miles Toward a Movement Virtual 5k Running Event!
Running from June 3rd to June 7th, the virtual marathon was created to help improve diversity within the physical therapy and occupational therapy fields. Runners, joggers and walkers alike had the opportunity to pledge their miles and donate to a good cause, with all proceeds going to the APTA’s Minority Scholarship Fund. This 5k event allowed us an opportunity to support the APTA’s mission to foster the long-term sustainability of the physical & occupational therapy profession by making APTA an inclusive organization that reflects the diversity of the society the profession serves with therapists from various races, backgrounds and experiences.
Race participants got running ready by sporting their shiny digital race badges on their social feeds, and shared their running journey on social media! To say “thank you” for the donations and commitment, we also gifted our runners with cool SPEAR gear, swag, and gifts, including t-shirts, bags, phone clips, and masks!
SPEAR’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, which includes a team of dedicated physical and occupational therapists, also contributed their expertise, knowledge and personal experiences to raise awareness for our cause—you can check out all our videos on our IG TV and Facebook video pages! From warm-up videos to personal life stories, there’s something for everyone!
SPEAR teammates were definitely in the spirit, too: across all our clinics, we hosted a Community Run Day. Each location had a fun time posing for photos together to build excitement for the event, and of course, letting our patients and visitors know how they could help support our cause!
The virtual marathon proved to be a great opportunity to do something collectively as a community, while still maintaining a safe social distance. With everyone’s donations, together we raised over $1,200 for the fund!
We are so excited to have created such an awesome impactful event that benefits a cause bigger than just running. We would like to thank everyone who donated, shared, and participated. We appreciate the contribution of your time and energy to such an important cause. As always, we will continue to look for ways to continue elevating our community and finding ways to create a more diverse, inclusive environment for all!
