HALIFAX -- When the COVID-19 pandemic forced her out of two jobs, Gill Whelan took fate into her own hands.
The Newfoundland native started offering virtual boot camps from her basement.
“Squat, make it weird,” says Whelan during one of her virtual boot camps.
Whelan may be jumping around alone in her Paradise, Newfoundland basement, but thousands of people are following along.
After losing two jobs- one in finance, one in fitness- during the COVID-19 pandemic, she started Whelan Wellness last April.
“Like everybody else, I found myself in a place of being overwhelmed and worries, and high stress and high anxiety,” says Whelan. “I knew I had the toolbox to help myself through that. I knew I had the things in order to make myself feel well again.”
Whelan says her business is more than just a boot camp, it is a community driven by connection and impact. And it’s caught on quickly.
“It has been massive. It’s been so very exciting for myself and everybody involved, we’re doing good things, we’re creating a community, and we’re moving our bodies and working on our emotional, physical and mental health, and it’s so important,” says Whelan.
Participants can wake up early and take the class at 5:30 a.m. with Whelan over live-stream, or wait until she posts it to her private Facebook page later that morning.
She also offers ‘Tea Time Talks’ that range from discussions to cooking classes from St. John’s restaurants.
“People feel so isolate, but we are connected all over the globe. We have clients in Australia, in Austria, Malaysia, Qatar, France. All through the U.S., all through Canada, all across the world,” says Whelan.
Proving she can do a world of good, from her little piece of Paradise.
