Healthy LivingY Stories

Gino's 15,000 steps to success

02 March 2016 - by Nicole Meredith
It’s Megathon season!

Every year, the YMCA of Greater Toronto holds a fundraiser that helps people challenge themselves, while bettering their communities at the same time. Participants commit to completing a fitness challenge, and their friends, family, and community members lend their support to help them complete the challenge.

Thanks to their donations, the YMCA has been able to provide kids, teens, adults, and families with financial assistance so they can access our health-promoting programs and amenities. That means Megathon participants are directly helping make the GTA home to the healthiest children, teens, young adults and families.

Meet one of our champions: Gino


Megathon is such a meaningful way to push yourself and help others that some of our participants keep coming back, year after year. Gino has that kind of infinite dedication. He’s been a staff member at the Toronto Central Grosvenor Street YMCA Centre for over 29 years! Currently, he’s working in child care, but his tireless energy and commitment to helping others means his efforts make a difference to every aspect of the Y.

Gino never misses an opportunity to contribute to one of our events. This year for Megathon, he’s committed to climbing our stairs over 175 times in order to reach 15,000 steps in total!

How you can help

It’s your community, so don’t sit back and let others change it - join in the fun! It’s never too late to get involved in Megathon. Visit our webpage to register for a fitness challenge, collect donations, or support a participant or team in their efforts. Or check out our list of scheduled events to find a fun fitness challenge happening in your centre of community this week.

If you need some inspiration, Gino invites you to join him in his stair climb! (Don’t worry: your company and support will be appreciated even if you don’t take all 15, 000 steps.)

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