A Toronto man walked more than 100,000 steps from Yorkdale Mall to Hamilton to raise money for mothers in need and take them out for a spa day.
Last week, Trevaun Douglas set out on the mission wearing a 55-pound weighted vest. The runner logged every step of the 73-kilometre route on his TikTok and as a result, the video has garnered nearly 200,000 views as of publication.
@miisoblack Walking From Yorkdale Mall To Hamilton, Ontario | 😳 | #yorkdalemall #yorkdale #fitness #fitnesschallenge #gymmotivation #gymtok #workout #100ksteps #100kstepsin24hours #fatlossjourney #fatlosschallenge #weightloss #hamiltonontario ♬ Epic Motivation – Kidmada
In addition to being a TikToker, the creator is also a youth leader and a community helper for the Lawrence Heights community.
Douglas says growing up in a single-parent household motivated him to help other families in similar situations.
“…My mother, she raised me and my other siblings, and she had to go through a hard time. So, there’s times that we had to go to food banks and stuff and the thing was no matter how financially unstable we were, my mother was still working jobs while managing her mother that had dementia,” he said in an interview with Now Toronto on Monday.
“…As Mother’s Day was coming up, I was thinking, ‘What can I do that can bring awareness to the community of Lawrence Heights to really help the mothers in need?’” he continued.
As a result, Douglas planned the walk and dedicated it to moms, and created a campaign to raise money and take them on a spa day for Mother’s Day.
He, his close friend Oscar and a youth member under his tutelage decided to start their 18-hour trek at Yorkdale, because it is a popular landmark, and end it in Hamilton.
Using Chat GPT, Douglas calculated the walk and noticed it was 10,000 steps short of his personal goal of 100,000.
“So, what I did was I woke up at midnight, I only had one hour of sleep and it was crazy. I went to bed at 11 p.m, I woke up at 12 a.m. What I did was I jogged for like 45 minutes to get a few steps in and then I went to Fit 4 Less because it’s open 24 hours and I walked 45 minutes then met up with my youth and my friend at 4:30 a.m at Yorkdale mall,” he said.
Douglas said at times, the journey was very tough but luckily for him, he was prepared for any setback.
“…I brought three battery packs, battery portable chargers, however, the night before, I didn’t test to see if they work, so thank God out of all three battery packs, only one worked. So, I also brought two Apple watches. When one died, I alternated with the other one. And I thanked God that by the time we reached halfway, my first Apple Watch died, so I switched on to the second one,” he said.
“…The main challenge for me was the vest because I should have brought padding for my shoulder as it was digging into my skin, my back and my legs. My feet, everything was hurting but what made me continue to do this was all the mothers that endured more than what I was going through,” he added.
Whenever he felt like giving up, Douglas said he would focus on the mothers who were counting on him and that helped push him towards the finish line.
In the end, he raised $1,855 on GoFundMe, just $145 short of his $2,000 goal. With this money, he took ten mothers from the Lawrence Heights community to the “Go Place” spa in Markham as a treat for Mother’s Day.
@miisoblack I Took 10 Mothers To A Spa For Mothers Day | 🌸 👩🏽 | #mothersday #mothers #mother #goplacespa #motherslove #mothersdayspecial #spa #selfcare #mothersoftiktok #torontolife #happymothersday #happymother #mothersdaymessage ♬ Surrender – Natalie Taylor
Douglas says he plans to start another initiative at the end of summer ahead of back to school time for the kids in his neighbourhood.
In addition, he and Oscar have a few ideas in the works such as a walk from Yorkdale to Niagara Falls and a bike ride from Toronto to Wasaga Beach.
