On June 26th 2021, Natural Sole Wellness Centre and members of the Seniors Wellness & Services Group hosted their very first “Charity Gift from the Heart – Free Health & Wellness Care for Seniors Event”.

Despite the rainy weather and the Covid-19 restrictions, we had a wonderful turnout. More than 30 Seniors and their families booked their free appointments and met with our team of holistic health and wellness professionals. After a year of being isolated with limited access to health care services, our seniors were happy to participate in a full day focused on their physical and mental wellbeing!

The idea started with my colleague and friend, Ireen DeHaan, owner of iSmile Mobile Dental Clinic Ottawa, who wanted to offer FREE dental care and exams to Seniors in needs, in partnership with the Gift from the Heart Charity Event. Covid-19 did create some accessibility challenges, and Irene reached out to a few of us members of the Seniors Wellness & Services Group. I did not hesitate to invite Irene to host her Free Charity Event at Natural Sole Wellness Centre. Our clinic is ground level, wheelchair accessible, and we have tons of free parking. All of treatment rooms are private which was perfect for our planned-out event. I was thrilled to offer Irene and our community this opportunity to receive free dental care, because I knew how difficult this past year has been, and how many seniors have been struggling through the pandemic. But after a few chats between Irene, Mariette (our co-founder of the Seniors Wellness & Services Group) and I, we naturally turned this event to an ALL-DAY of free health and wellness services!

Because we were still in stage 1 of reopening with strict covid-19 regulations and capacity limits, we were limited on the services we could offer. We reached out to the health and wellness professionals from our group to offer various services. And with a little hard work, that felt like a breeze, our team came together:

• Irene DeHaan, Registered Dental Hygienist, offered dental cleaning and oral health assessments. iSmile Mobile Dental Clinic Ottawa
• Sarab Dormani (me), Registered Nurse and Foot Care Specialist, offered foot health care and assessments. Natural Sole Wellness Centre
• Meg Stickl, Senior Fitness expert, and her adorable therapy dog Findley by her side, was able to offer Fitness and Balance assessments. AIM Fitness Activities in Motion
• Pamela Vezina, Hearing Consultant with Helix, offered hearing testing and assessments. Helix Care Hearing Centre
• Sylvie Demers, Registered Optician, offered her Optician services such as eye glasses repair and assessments. From her own mobile clinic set up, no less, in the parking lot! Mobile Optician Services d’Opticien Mobile
• Mariette St-Denis, Seniors Living Counsellor was able to meet with everyone after their appointments to discuss retirement home living or home health care services as an Advisor for Seniors with Visavie.

Our day was nothing but amazing. We met so many wonderful people from our community and we received nothing but gratitude from our patients. We were also able to offer door prizes and a contest with 3 great prizes.

We truly wish to thank everyone who helped us create this event:

Frederic Parent, Director of Operations and Marketing at Natural Sole Wellness Centre, for the organization, management, and marketing for the event.

Angela D’Orazio, Receptionist and Administrative Assistant at Natural Sole Wellness Centre, for the organization and appointment bookings.

Dylan Black at Boom 99.7 FM for all the shout-outs on radio and on their website for our event. 

Big thank you as well to the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun and Rogers Community TV Channel 22 for promoting our charity event for FREE!

Finally, thanks to all who gave us some give away prizes to draw at the end of the day.

The event was a HUGE success. Our patients have asked for an “encore” of this event! Big plans for Spring 2022! Stay tuned!