The organizers of Imagine Run in Niverville held One Big Day for Imagine on Wednesday at the Niverville Credit Union in preparation for Saturday's event.

Imagine Run Founder Mona Stott says this is the third year they have put on One Big Day for Imagine leading up to Imagine Run. She says the first year they started off with testimonials and though they were inspirational, it made for a very heavy day. She notes the second year they brought coffee and cinnamon buns to local businesses and felt the day was a little bit to dispersed. She says this year they set up more of a community event to bring people together.

WM Dyck & Sons supplied barbecue

"What we are all about is raising awareness, and we can't do that without funds. How do you put an event together in one day to create that? Get your local celebrities and get them up on a forty foot boom, so they are up there calling their contacts saying can you help me get down, the twist to that is most people are paying to keep them up, so there we got the fun, the funds, and the awareness."

Stott says they also had early registration for Imagine Run and a charity barbecue lunch. She notes WM Dyck & Sons put on the barbecue, and the Niverville Fire Department manned the zoom boom.

Niverville Fire Chief Keith Bueckert says The Fire Department is glad to help in any way they can.

"It is very important for us to be able to help out the community that helps us so much, and there's a lot of people that need help with mental health and if there is any way that we can help with raising money we jump at it to help the people in the community with that."

Stott says registration for Imagine Run this Saturday is 3 p.m. at Hespeler Park. She notes in years previous the route for the run has gone through residential Niverville and finished after dark.

"We were finding that it was a safety issue because people were running in the dark and they wanted to finish the event, even though we said it was a safety factor they insisted on completing. We can't have that. The last thing we want is for anybody to get hurt, so this year we are doing everything in the park."

Stott says there will be a large variety of entertainment throughout the afternoon and early evening on Saturday. She notes the whole event is in place to reduce the stigma of mental health.

One Big Day for Imagine raised $11,000 for Imagine Mental Health.