STREETS TURN PINK
Calgarians Run for the Cure
Do one thing that scares you every day. Dance like no one’s watching.
The sun has not yet risen over the Southcentre mall parking lot, but already Ryan Hooper has accomplished both tips for a happy life. The local volunteer, though, is just getting started.
“You know how scared I am every single time I do this?” says the 32- year- old with a laugh. “It’s definitely outside my comfort zone.”
Still, every October for the past four years, the Calgarian — who by day is a local deliveryman — becomes Hope the Gorilla, a hairy beast wearing a pink bra and matching tutu. On Sunday morning, Hooper is one of the first to arrive at the starting line for the 24th annual CIBC Run for the Cure, soon to be joined by nearly 7,000 fellow supporters who will raise more than $ 1.3 million for the cause.
“The first time I danced as Hope was the first time I ever danced in front of other people,” says the father of two. “It was crazy but super fun.”
Crazy, joyful, celebratory — all these words perfectly fit the mood on this chilly morning as thousands of Calgarians descend on the mall parking lot, to be treated to musical performances, a pancake breakfast and a fundraising 1 km and 5 km walk/ run around the neighbourhood.
Their presence here, of course, is for a serious cause. Hosted by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, the annual run — happening on this day in 64 communities across the country — raises more than $ 1 million each year in Calgary alone.
The most common cancer in Canadian women, breast cancer represents one in four cancer diagnoses. In Alberta, about 2,300 women will be diagnosed with the disease this year. It’s estimated 5,000 Canadian women and 60 Canadian men will die from the disease in 2015.
The more than $ 300 million raised by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation since 1986, however, has helped to make great strides in breast cancer prevention, earlier detection and diagnosis, as well as treatment and care. Since peaking in 1986, breast cancer deaths have decreased 44 per cent, thanks to such work.
It is with this in mind that Mark Lieskovsky follows Hooper’s “do one thing every day that scares you” attitude by donning, for the first time in his life, he admits, a pink grass skirt on a brisk Sunday morning.
“Our friend Doreen Thomson was lucky, she was able to be treated for her breast cancer without surgery,” he says as he and wife, Louise, try to keep warm before the walk. “Her experience shows that continued research is so important, that fundraising like this makes a big difference in people’s lives.”
Scanning the growing throng prior to the 9: 30 a. m. walk/ run start time, I imagine that every dollar store in Calgary was emptied earlier this week of any item in pink. Pink leggings, pink beads, wigs, fedoras, body suits, hair pins, hats — anything pink, it’s all here.
Joanne Burkett says she and her daughter Kerry must have spent an hour in a dollar store this week, picking out accessories to show their support.
“We’ve got the hats, the fedoras, the sweat shirts,” says the 66- year- old with a laugh. “Whatever we could get our hands on.”
Burkett, who says her mother died of a different cancer a few years ago, says she and her daughter are at the walk/ run for the first time.
“We kept hearing from people what a wonderful experience it was, so we decided to come out.”
According to Kate Pointon, the 500 volunteers who put together the Calgary leg of the national event each year are proud of what they’ve built.
“We are second in size only to Toronto,” says Pointon, a longtime foundation volunteer who serves as the Calgary volunteer run director.
“The support in this city is just phenomenal,” she says, noting the funds raised here stay in the province for research and other initiatives.
“The community really gets into it, too,” says Pointon. “A lot of people decorate their homes, and there’s one resident that has a band on their driveway, playing for people as they go by.”
It’s with this spirit that Joselyn Martens donned a pink tutu and jumped on a city transit bus at 5: 30 a. m. Sunday.
“Everyone was staring at me like I was crazy,” says the Bow Valley College student and event volunteer as she holds up a giant “Ask Me” sign. “But most people love it. I had one man ask me to marry him already this morning.”
The fun in helping such a serious and important cause is not lost on fellow participants like Ryan Hooper, a. k. a. Hope the Gorilla.
“So far, no one close to me has had breast cancer,” he says before posing for the first of likely hundreds of photos this day, most of them with those whose lives have been affected by the disease. “But I know how many people it touches — and once you dance in public in a gorilla suit, you just have to do it again.”