HEALTH & FITNESS

OPEN SPACES HAPPY TRAILS

A new trail will give Naples residents and visitors a dedicated area to walk, run, and bike. Naples Pathway Coalition (NPC), the nonprofit working to create the Paradise Coast Trail, envisions a 70-plus mile track connecting Naples, Bonita Springs, Collier Seminole State Park, and other Collier County locations. “This is a significant need for the area,” says Michelle Avola-Brown, executive director of NPC. “If you look at trail maps of Florida, it’s like they forgot Southwest Florida.” AvolaBrown explains that besides promoting wellness, the trail should provide a safe and environmentally friendly transportation alternative for residents, as well as increase tourism, jobs, and property values of nearby homes. The trail is currently undergoing a feasibility study and environmental reviews, which will likely take around 14 months to complete. While there may be future delays, Avola-Brown hopes construction can start on sections of the trail next summer, with segments opening to public use as they are completed. She estimates approximately five to 10 years to finish the entire trail, adding that continued community support, including from local homeowners’ associations, is vital to keep the project moving. “Trails are just open for everybody, any fitness level, any interest level,” says Avola-Brown. “There’s something anybody pretty much can do on a trail.” (naplespathways.org)

PET SAFETY Dogs and Cane Toads

When you take your dog for an evening walk, watch for cane toads, also known as bufo toads. These non-native amphibians secrete toxins that can sicken or kill animals that bite or lick them, such as dogs. “Curious pets are most often at risk,” explains Dr. Sterling Sigmond, a veterinarian at Naples Coastal Animal Hospital. She recommends being watchful of pets that love to explore their environments, like terriers and retrievers, during times that toads are particularly active: during the summer, after it rains, and from dusk to dawn. To reduce the risk, Sigmond suggests keeping your pets inside at night and making your yard less attractive to toads by keeping your grass short, covering swimming pools, filling holes around structures, and turning off outdoor lights that attract insects (a food source for toads). If your pet contacts a toad, they may paw at their mouths, drool, vomit, or have a seizure. Sigmond advises immediately flushing your pet’s mouth and face with water before seeking veterinary care. One cane toad’s toxins can be fatal to a 20- to 30-pound dog, she notes. (naplescoastalvet.com) PHILANTHROPY

YOGA FOR GOOD

As a new college graduate, Lauren Fox was working as a yoga teacher back home in Naples and remembers a friend being unable to afford the drop-in fee for a class. Her friend’s mother had recently passed away from cancer and Fox knew she needed the class, so she ended up paying, despite having little money at the time herself. “I just remember thinking, how can people afford yoga when it’s this expensive?” Fox recalls. The experience inspired Fox to found Donation Yoga Naples. The organization holds yoga classes on the beach with participants paying the amount they can afford, typically $10 to $20. “I’ve never turned anybody away,” says Fox. “All I ask is that those people who don’t donate money just clean the beach.” The organization, which focuses on “seeing peace signs over dollar signs,” also gives back to the community by donating 50 percent of all proceeds to local nonprofits, switching each month between human and animal-focused causes, such as United Way of Collier County and Friends of Rookery Bay. Fox hopes to expand the number of teachers and classes, helping more people enjoy yoga. (donationyoganaples.com)

FITNESS

DRIVE-BY WORKOUTS

Ever wanted the gym to come to you? Thanks to COVID-19, certified personal trainer John Skokna started a mobile gym using a customized trailer. He takes his Skokna Strength Performance Unit to parks, driveways, and sports fields, where it folds out into a training area with squat racks, kettlebells, pull-up bars, and more. “Anything you can think of that you’d have in a gym can be found in my trailer,” Skokna explains. He believes the trailer can continue to help people meet their workout goals even as life and fitness return to normal after the pandemic. Besides removing the stress of finding time for a trip to the gym, the trailer lets you exercise outdoors, providing fresh air and vitamin D. Everything is sanitized after the previous person or group, and Skokna’s personalized attention ensures proper form to avoid injury and to give you the foundation to return to a gym when you choose to. “Whatever your goals are, those are my goals,” he notes. “Both physically and health-wise, I’ll meet you wherever you’re at.” (skoknastrength.com) ON THE WATER

Therapeutic SAILING

The Freedom Waters Foundation provides therapeutic boating, fishing, and adaptive sailing programs for children and adults with disabilities or life-threatening illnesses, as well as veterans and atrisk youth. Founder and executive director Debra Frenkel first entered the boating world while working as a social worker in Chicago. “I was getting pretty burnt out and kept seeing sailboats in my head,” she remembers. She learned to sail and volunteered with a disabled sailing program, then ended up running several such programs herself over the following decade.

One of the first people she met in the industry, John Weller, later became the co-founder of Freedom Waters Foundation. A cancer survivor, he wanted to hold boat outings for children with cancer and soon encouraged Frenkel to start her own foundation.

She launched it in 2006, choosing the name after a Paralympic sailor friend told her he kept going out on the water because of the freedom it offered.

After 15 years, the organization provides more than 3,200 on-the-water experiences annually. Frenkel recalls the first veterans’ event drawing only two participants, both of whom seemed uncomfortable to be there. But after their fishing trip, she says, “They were totally changed men—smiling, talking, laughing.” One of them helped Frenkel expand the veterans’ program, bringing the next trip to 142 veterans and leading to established year-round veterans’ events.

Frenkel says her favorite part of running the foundation is “making people smile, feel loved, and giving them a memory for a lifetime.” As the organization works toward building a national presence, more people will have the opportunity to benefit from boating experiences. “Being out in nature, being one with water, it is just a natural therapy,” Frenkel explains. “People at the end of all of our trips are always more relaxed.” With an average of 300 volunteers per year helping in the Naples and Fort Lauderdale offices and on the water, the organization builds a greater sense of understanding and tolerance for differences. (freedomwatersfoundation.org)