Village Northwest Unlimited, Sheldon, has announced that the 16th Annual Run, Walk & Roll scheduled for Saturday, June 5 has been rescheduled to Saturday, September 25, 2021.
In announcing, that the Run, Walk and Roll would be postponed, Barry Whitsell, President and CEO of Village Northwest Unlimited, noted that even though the number of positive cases for coronavirus are trending down in Northwest Iowa and more people are being vaccinated, Village officials felt that it would be safest for the residents and participants to postpone the event until more time has lapsed. Whitsell commented, “The health and safety of our residents during this pandemic has been and continues to be our top priority. We are slowly beginning to re-open the Village to visitors and when we last held the event in 2019, we had 600 participants. This is a great turnout and we hope to have such a large turnout this year but our comfort level with having this large of a crowd in June would not allow us to ensure the safety of our residents. After talking with our leadership team and board members we felt more confident about holding the event in the fall to be sure we could safely hold the Run, Walk and Roll event on our campus with our residents, their families and the general public”.
Village officials believe that by holding the event in the fall more people will be able to be fully vaccinated and there will be more time to ascertain that the trajectory of positive cases of the virus in the area continue to trend downward.
Village officials also noted that the City of Sheldon will be doing construction along N. 18th Avenue starting this spring and this will affect the entrance to the Village grounds. While this construction is going on, a temporary entrance to the Village will be necessary and this would have impacted people’s ability to get on and off the Village campus for the event.
Village Northwest Unlimited is nationally recognized as one of the premier providers of services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder or traumatic brain injuries. VNU builds successful lives for 180 individuals by providing opportunities and choices in residential, vocational and social programs while fulfilling its mission of providing Purpose, Privacy and Dignity.