On the 11th May 2022, Captain Heidi Haden hosted her first live and interactive wellbeing workshop and charity fundraising event as part of the HMS Shipshape ‘Your health is you wealth campaign that originated back in 2020 as part of the COVID lockdown.
Designed to help raise awareness, provide support and encourage people to connect socially in the local community and participate in a taster session of various exercises (including HMS Shipshape dance fitness numbers) for improving mental health and wellbeing. Exercise providers included iFitness Cornwall, Total Motivational Fitness and Yoga Tully.
As well as the participation of local fitness businesses, Heidi was also keen to fundraise, support and recognise the fabulous work of three local health and wellbeing charities in the local community which were Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity, The Wave Project and Your Voice Cornwall which were also in attendance and gave a brief talk to all attendees about where their funding will reach out to help others and support services in mental health.
In the months leading up to the event, Heidi tirelessly worked hard on a short intense promotional campaign reaching out to local businesses in Truro to display the event posters in the city as well as several local media features on radio, social media and in the local press. Heidi also wanted to gain a real insight and understanding into each of the charities with personal visits and involvement for example in the volunteer training at the Wave Project so that at the event itself she could really articulate each charities values rather than merely be a compare on the night.
As a result of a total community effort involving the exercise providers, charity representatives and attendees from across Cornwall the event raised an incredible £485 with £161.66 going to each of the charities.
The plan moving forwards is to continue building momentum in the local community through wider networking and promotion of a range of exercise activities and holistic approaches whilst supporting the work of other valuable charities that support/campaign for mental health and wellbeing through the delivery of other future events.