Run aims to widen fundraising with new Jumpstart charity

Honouring the tender memory of a tiny daughter lost to a rare infection only hours after birth, Team Peyton has participated in the Sport Chek Mother’s Day Run, Walk and Ride for 10 years, raising more than $60,000.

With up to 30 family members lacing up every year for the Calgary Health Trust’s neonatal intensivecare units, they’ve ensured that Peyton Olivia LeManne’s brief life has made a lasting, profound impact.

“When you lose a baby, it seems so unnatural. Nobody knows what to do, what to say,” said mother Michaelle LeManne Lamb.

“But the Mother’s Day Run was able to bring us all together and do something positive in Peyton’s name, a way to honour her, to keep her memory alive and allow her to make a positive impact.”

Just over a year after losing Peyton, Michaelle gave birth to a baby boy, Wesley, who arrived a few weeks prematurely and also faced medical complications, including two collapsed lungs.

After 15 days in the Foothills NICU, Wesley spent six months on heart medication, closely monitored by medical staff.

“After what had happened to his sister, it was a really difficult time. We were very worried,” she said.

But, today, Wesley is a happy, healthy 10-year-old, who loves hockey and baseball, and can’t wait to run the five-kilometre race at this year’s Mother’s Day event.

After taking a year off from their decade of participation, Wesley convinced his mom to hit the streets yet again this year.

“We both missed it, but Wesley told me he especially missed it and really wants to participate again because of Jumpstart.”

Since becoming a fundraising race in the 1980s — raising $3.4 million for Calgary Health Trust’s neonatal ICUs and up to $2.6 million for Forzani’s Foundation charities — the Sport Chek Mother’s Day Run, Walk and Ride is welcoming a new partner this year in Canadian Tire Jumpstart.

Founded in 2005, the charity supports financially strapped families who cannot afford to enrol their children in organized sport.

And while the Mother’s Day Run continues to be the city’s largest family fundraising event, with more than 15,000 participants every year, officials are excited to broaden participation and fundraising through a new charity helping to make kids more active.

“We’ve changed our overall outlook in hopes of expanding and welcoming more people, families beyond those impacted by the NICUs,” said Todd Birss, event manager.

“It’s becoming a larger event every year, because anyone can do this. It’s for everyone in the family, from the run to the walk to the little legs race — there’s something for everybody.”

Last year, the event collected more than $200,000 for the Calgary Health Trust’s neonatal ICUs at Foothills Hospital, Rocky View Medical Centre, South Health Campus and the Peter Lougheed Centre. Funds go toward life-saving equipment such as incubators, isolettes, bedside monitors, and acute-care ventilators.