In this conversational interview, host Penny Kidd of Pennywise Coaching talks with Candice Oates, representative of the nonprofit Obesity Awareness in Action (OAA). OAA is a health‑focused nonprofit serving youth (grades 5‑12) in Northern Colorado, offering free wellness education that covers the eight dimensions of wellness through interactive programs, guest speakers, and partnerships with Aims Community College and the Boys & Girls Club of Laramie. To fund its Awareness Bound program—providing supplies and resources for these free classes—the organization is hosting a community Walk & Roll fundraiser on June 9 at Loveland Sports Park from 5 PM check‑in to 8 PM. Participants are suggested to donate $25 via Eventbrite, receiving two raffle tickets per $25 increment, with additional tickets for higher donations. The walk is non‑competitive, encouraging participants to track steps with pedometers, Fitbits, or Apple Watches, and aims to create a fun, inclusive atmosphere. Candice emphasizes that all proceeds (aside from operational costs) go directly to the Awareness Bound program, and highlights the importance of community support: attending, sharing the event, donating, and supporting small‑business vendors who will be present without charging fees. The goal is to attract 250 attendees, fostering community connection and supporting both the nonprofit’s mission and local vendors.
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Hey everybody, this is Penny with Pennywise Coaching, and I have Candice Oates here with Obesity Awareness in Action.
That's correct.
I got the name right. Um, we're excited to kind of share with you about a new fundraiser Candice is doing and learn more about how you might be able to support this cool nonprofit. So tell us a little bit about the nonprofit and then what you're doing to raise money for it.
Sure. So the nonprofit Obesity Awareness in Action, we are a health-based nonprofit focused on the youth in the community. So we do programming in the youth community for 5th through 12th graders and wellness education, health education, and just general knowledge on the 8 dimensions of wellness. So we focus on emotional, spiritual, financial, and all dimensions to keep an individual healthy. Sometimes we bring in guest speakers, we have toys and and things that we do to entertain the kids and to learn at the same time, very interactive. We're based out of Loveland, Colorado, and we work with Aims Community College. They have a College for Kids program that we work with, and also the Boys and Girls Club of Laramie. We start working there on Monday. So I'm really super excited about the nonprofit and really super excited about the walk. The walk is to fuel the supplies that we need for our Awareness Bound program. So each class has between 10 and 35 children And it is completely free to the children and completely free to the organizations using our services, which becomes very, very pricey. And that's where the walk is coming in on June 9th.
June 9th. So where is it? What does it cost to participate?
So our walk on June 9th is at Loveland Sports Park from 6 PM to 8 PM, and you check in starts at 5 PM. We have vendors, wonderful vendors, a live band, mostly Stevie Nicks covers that I love so much, food truck, and just tons of sponsored gifts for our giveaway.
It's—
the suggested donation is $25 to enter, right? So when you go on Eventbrite to book a ticket, you can donate from $1 to $1 million, that doesn't matter. But at that $25 mark, in $25 intervals, you will get 2 tickets to enter into the raffle or to our giveaway boxes. And you can put those tickets in any of those boxes you want, and you You can win as many times as the luck calls for you to be drawn. So if you donate $100 and you have 2, 4, 6, 8 tickets, you can put them all in one box, spread them all out. If you win once, twice, 3 times, or 8 times, those gifts are yours.
Nice. And what can they expect?
What's the walk like?
Do we have to be a certain fitness level? Is it a race? Is it Competitive?
No, we— I don't run and I don't like marked timing. So we have a 2-hour span. We put some pedometers on you if you want. You can also use your Fitbit or your Apple Watch, whatever you want to use, but we track steps and only steps. And that's really just a celebration of what we're doing and how we're moving. There's no minimum nor maximum. It's totally up to you how much you walk or how much you don't walk. I like to provide a very fun environment where it's like easy breezy and you're just enjoying enjoying your time and don't really know how much you're moving. Last year we had tons of people who walked 2, 3, 4, 5 miles and was like, I can't believe I walked all of this, right? It's mostly mingling, having a good time, coming together and being a community while supporting a good cause. I mean, every dime besides us paying our bills as a nonprofit, which doesn't include salaries— we are not salaried, we're all volunteer— um, goes towards our Awareness Bound program, our obesity awareness, OAA Awareness Bound program, for the kids, the 5th through 12th graders, and for their supplies.
Okay, so how else can we support you?
Supporting would be show up, share this message, share the post, sign up, donate what you feel like is a comfortable amount in your wheelhouse, tell other people to come, and support the vendors. They're all small businesses there as well.
And just really come together and try really, really hard to just Give from the bottom of your heart and share. We would love to have 250 people this year. That's the goal. Um, and having those people here just as a community and supporting the community and the small businesses that are coming is wonderful. I don't charge vending fees. Um, and so everyone's donating their time and effort to be there, to be a part of this walk. And so I would love for those vendors to have some support and their small businesses. So support our small businesses, support us, and if you're a vendor, consider donating a little bit of your, of your money or time, you know, into our nonprofit.
I think we can do that. Please share this with the people around you, especially in Northern Colorado, um, but maybe further abroad because other people— you're growing into other communities, so we want to encourage that.
Take donations from all over the world. Perfect.
Awesome. Okay, thanks everybody. Talk to you soon.
