Hi Everyone! My name is Julia and many of you know my Service Dog, Spirit. From May 30th until June 21st, Spirit and I are backpacking/trail running 700km along the East Coast Trail, ending by running the Tely 10 Race the morning of June 22nd. During this journey, I am fundraising for my social enterprise StartUp, Spirited Canines.

Spirited Canines has been in development to give at-risk-youth leadership training via a relational model where they undergo a year long service dog training program. We aim to use dogs from Northern Communities. I have been working on Spirited Canines since 2020 and have had the mentorship of countless dog trainers, leadership coaches, and business mentors.

After attempting suicide in my last year of high-school, the day before my 18th birthday, I was paired with and trained my own service dog - Spirit. It took years of intensive trauma therapy to reclaim my life. I have since gone back to university, travelled the world, and made hundreds of friends. The journey took enormous effort and included forgiving myself and others for our very human imperfections. Now I want to give back to the world by connecting with others who need someone to believe in them, the way my mentors believed in me.

This Run for Recovery marks a new chapter in my life - one where I get to give back, make a big impact, and share my deep love of humanity with the world. All proceeds will go towards accomplishing my long term career goals in the following possible ways:

1. Investing in the student incubator, Mitacs, which doubles the money put in to pay myself and student interns while starting up.

2. Ensuring I have the proper credentials, licenses, and liability insurance.

3. Putting a down payment on a residential property so I can house the dogs in training and offer community programming from my own space.

4. Marketing and travelling to strengthen my brand.

5. I will pay out a small portion of proceeds to help me secure housing and costs of living while stabilizing my income.

Throughout the next year I will continue working with the MUN Center For Social Enterprise and Center for Entrepreneurship to discuss the most appropriate incorporation pathways and streams of income for long term sustainability. Spirited Canines is currently a registered Sole Proprietorship.

I hope you will support me in my dreams, so I can support others in theirs!

Cheers,

Julia Silverman