WALKING FOR CHARITY
Three charity walks took place on Sunday.
It’s a common sight in the summer: people of all fitness levels and ages in runners and matching T-shirts making their way around one city location or another in support of cures for diseases or disorders that plague Canadians.
But with so many of these events out there, do fundraising walks still serve their purpose? According to those who helped organize three charity walks this Sunday, they certainly do.
“I think it gets people motivated,” said Lisa Brice, chair of this year’s Gutsy Walk for Crohn’s and Colitis. “It gets me really pumped that we’re raising money for people that are really affected by a disease which is a closet disease. People don’t want to talk about it and it affects them daily ... It brings people together. We have a barbecue, we share our stories.”
For Brenda Evans, cochair of the local TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), walks like this are a great way to connect with others whose lives are also affected by the disease, as well as raising money and awareness.
“I think when you have a walk, there’s more awareness than just doing a fundraiser on the radio or just going around collecting money,” she said. “When you actually have people coming out in a body, a community of people out here, it shows that support and it also helps them get together and know that they’re not alone.”
Evans’s son Samuel was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes just a few days after his 11th birthday, making events like this — and the awareness they bring — personal for Evans and her family.
“I never knew anyone with diabetes before and, when he was diagnosed, I was totally shocked and was like, how did he get this because there’s no diabetes in our family,” she said. “And that’s a misconception people have is that it’s about what you eat, it’s something maybe he ate or in our family which Type 1 isn’t. Type 1 can hit any child ... That’s my prayer is that all these kids or any adults now with Type 1 will be cured one day, (that) we’ll raise enough to find a cure for this.”
Randy Durovick, fundraiser co-ordinator of Regina’s JDRF’s walk, said the number of participants — he was expecting as many as 1,500 — shows events like this are working.