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“To this day I still visit clients both inside and outside the PACE on a regular basis as I truly do consider them friends.”

My name is Andrew Mikhail and I’m a former volunteer and staff member at the PACE. My first experience with PACE was after my first year of undergrad when I began volunteering in the MacWheelers exercise program. I truly enjoyed my summer volunteering there, helping out the clients in a very friendly and supportive environments. I found myself wanting to be there more often and it didn’t feel like a “volunteering task” but more of a place where I can come socialize with clients while helping them follow their exercise programs. During my second year, I increased my volunteer shifts to 3-4 times per week where I got to know more of the lovely clients and previous staff. During May 2016, I had the honour of being hired as a staff member for the MSFITT and MacWheelers program. I can confidently say that it was my favourite employment. Aside from building on my friendships with both staff and clients, I was able to have more responsibilities and further help clients by creating individualized exercise programs and leading one on one sessions on specialized equipment such as the lokomat and Zero-G. Unfortunately, I am no longer a staff member at PACE after beginning my master’s degree, but my experience there will stay with me forever. Many of the skills I learned at PACE including good clinical practice and modifying exercises to fit an individual have really helped me in my graduate studies while organizing my own research studies. To this day I still visit clients both inside and outside the PACE on a regular basis as I truly do consider them friends.

“When I think of PACE, the first words that come to mind are 'family' and 'love'. ”

When I think of PACE, the first words that come to mind are “family” and “love”. Without fail, visiting PACE continually proves to be the best part of my week. The PACE creates an inviting environment that makes you want to come back. In fact, I continuously find myself coming to PACE outside of my scheduled hours because I miss the positive atmosphere. Our members are a truly inspiring group of individuals and their optimism, drive and loving spirits are contagious in nature.

“PACE allows me to seamlessly integrate research within the community so that our exercise interventions for brain health can have a meaningful impact sooner to help keep dementia at bay.”

PACE allows me to seamlessly integrate research within the community so that our exercise interventions for brain health can have a meaningful impact sooner to help keep dementia at bay.