6th ANNUAL UNITY RUN

West Kelowna, British Columbia — The Sixth Annual Spirit of Syilx Unity Run held by Okanagan Nation Alliance is set to be a multi-platform event aimed at the success of youth in the community. This year’s Unity Run’s importance is for First Nations people in the community as suicide and violence rates are substantially up across the province and Canada.

The run is slated to commence on Thurs. June 5th at 6:00pm with opening ceremonies at the Westbank First Nation Gymnasium, West Bank, BC. The run will tour through Penticton, Oliver, Cawston, crossing the border into Tonasket and wrap up in Omak, WA on June 8 at 2:00 pm at Omak Lake.

In its entirety, the run is roughly 250 km’s.
The objective is to encourage Nationhood through action and healthy life style while tackling key social problems. By utilizing action as a means to engage with youth in the community, ONA has a significant opportunity to reach the ever-growing number of youth among the eight member communities. Every year the number of participants is on the rise, which provides youth with an opportunity to reconnect with their culture in a positive environment.

The Okanagan Nation member communities’ number one health priority is to address mental health concerns. The Unity Run is a Youth mental health prevention event by increasing the youth’s sense of belonging and their spiritual connection to the land and each other. The goal of this run is to mobilize and motivate communities to bring awareness to youth and First Nation communities and ways to address the high rate of suicide and decrease violence in the Okanagan Nation Communities.