By Danielle Carney

It was a sunny, crisp Saturday morning on the rail trail at Austin Sawmill Heritage Park in Kinmount as walkers, joggers and cyclists turned out for the 28th annual Journey for Health on Sept. 19.

The Kinmount District Health Services Foundation is the volunteer board behind the fundraiser. Organizers moved the date this year from the long-established second Sunday in August to the third Saturday in September. Foundation secretary and fundraising lead Kim Restivo-Galea says the board made the decision after several years of extreme heat and last year’s wildfire smoke. “It’s definitely a smaller crowd this year. Whether it’s the time of year, the weather, I don’t know – or people getting used to it not being in August.”

Among those who attended was Nelly Gluck who has been a receptionist and phlebotomist at the Kinmount and District Health Centre for 27 years. She walked to the three-kilometre point with her sister, Dr. Elena Mihu, Kinmount’s long-time physician for 25 years. Mihu would not retire until a replacement was in place. That replacement was Dr. Lesslie Ponraja. “Dr. Mihu decided that she wasn’t going to retire until she found a replacement,” says Gluck. That commitment sits at the heart of the fundraiser’s purpose: to recruit and retain primary care in an underserviced community, as well as tell the public about health and wellness services that can help fill the gaps.

The Lions Club served hot pancakes and peameal bacon under the picnic shelter and gifted the proceeds back to the foundation. Health and wellness services organizations from the local and greater area set up educational booths in the park. Eight-year-old Emmett and his mother, Jenn, a local volunteer firefighter, made enormous bubbles with string and sticks in front of the EarlyON booth. Blair and Campbell had their faces painted at the Canadian Mental Health Association booth by volunteer Avery Sudsbury. Dana Geyer of the Kawartha Lakes Public Library brought items from the Library of Things, including cognitive kits levelled for early, middle and later-stage Alzheimer’s.

The Kawartha Lakes – Haliburton Ontario Health Team registered people on the spot for Health Care Connect, the official provincial waitlist for a family doctor or nurse practitioner. People can join the list without leaving a doctor they already have; they leave the old practice only once they are paired with a new provider. “We have a big push right now to get people on, because we have new family doctors coming to the area,” says Christine Keenan of the health team. Those arrivals are in the wider region, not a confirmed hire for Kinmount. The team’s “Call Christine” campaign is a phone-in option for people less comfortable navigating the website. “We can register them over the phone,” Keenan says. They want people to know they are talking to a person, not a call centre.

City of Kawartha Lakes Fire Station 18 firefighter Wayne Styles says the morning is a chance to support the health centre, talk fire safety and attract volunteers. “We are very low on firefighters. So we want to put ourselves out there.” Firefighter Shane Martell, also a Haliburton County paramedic, says community paramedicine is another way to support residents. Community paramedicine is scheduled, non-urgent home visits, not a 911 run. Community paramedics from neighbouring EMS services make those visits in Haliburton County and the City of Kawartha Lakes so people who have trouble getting to a clinic or hospital can be checked at home. “The idea is to keep them at home instead of going to the hospital all the time. It frees up resources for those who really need them,” says Martell. Referrals come through Ontario Health atHome and doctors who already work with the program.

These are the kinds of bridges an underserviced area needs, says Susan Forrester, vice-chair and assistant secretary of the foundation. Kinmount is often described as a village of 500, but the health centre sits on the line of Trent Lakes, Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County and draws thousands of patients. “Sometimes people don’t know where they should go – not just for a family doctor or primary healthcare provider, but where do I go for community care? Where do I go for foot care, EarlyON?” The Canadian Mental Health Association, based in Peterborough with offices in Lindsay and elsewhere, also sends a mobile wellness clinic into rural communities. Hospice is the service nobody plans for until they need it. “We don’t want anyone, anywhere, to suffer in silence, and not know where to go,” she says.

Recruitment is a two-part job. The foundation works with Cindy Snider of the Kawartha Lakes Health Care Initiative, who recruits physicians for the municipality. Once a candidate is interested, the volunteer board of about 12 takes over the local side: site visits, help settling in, and equipment the ministry does not buy.

When a physician said there was no EKG machine, the foundation bought one. When Ponraja arrived from England in 2023 and said his specialty was lumps and bumps, they set up a procedure room. “It’s from fundraising like this that we can support the health centre,” Forrester says.

Ponraja is still Kinmount’s only family physician. A second doctor, Dr. Mimi Van Der Leden, joined in February 2025 and left last May for personal reasons. Julia Rutherford, a registered practical nurse (RPN), joined the clinic at the end of July. Ponraja, who came to the park before the presentations, says Kinmount “definitely needs at least one more.” Other services at the health centre include physiotherapist Vivian Wong-Svoboda, West Nursing Foot Care and The Smile Studio.

Restivo-Galea has been on the board and organizing Journey for Health since 2020. Her mother, Pat Restivo, was one of Mihu’s first patients in 1999 and collected pledges every year until she died in 2005. Kim used to walk the event with her. She still goes back to those same donors, and has a growing list of new ones. This year she personally collected $7,666. Sam Iskandar of The Kinmount Pharmacy has matched the top individual fundraiser up to $1,500 for 15 years, a tradition he inherited; last year he generously gave $10,000 toward recruitment. The Kinmount Legion and PetleyHare Insurance Brokers each contributed $1,000.

Foundation treasurer, Susan Burgess, had tabulated $17,413.49 by Sept. 23 — about $415 more than last year, Restivo-Galea says. Donations usually keep trickling in. Organizers were pleased given the cooler day, the new date and other events the same Saturday. An online auction, now part of the campaign, runs Oct. 1–15. Visit and follow the KDHSF Journey for Health Online Auction Facebook page to view the items and place bids.

“Kinmount is the little town that could,” Restivo-Galea says. She will be back on the trail next year, in her mother’s footsteps.