Charity race caught in fight over route
Plans for run’s 2018 start date up in the air amid concerns about traffic congestion
Every spring, over 20,000 people excitedly gather on Yonge St. north of Eglinton Ave. to run 10 kilometres down Toronto’s most iconic street.
The money raised by that race sends children to Camp Oochigeas, a special place that gives1,500 kids battling cancer the chance for some normal kid fun through its overnight camp with on-site chemotherapy, inhospital programs and city activities. It’s been that way for 15 years. But organizers fear for the future of the Sporting Life 10K, which raised $2.25 million this year — one-third of Camp Ooch’s overall budget.
Councillor Jaye Robinson doesn’t like the road closure through her ward — on top of all the congestion caused by condo developments and TTC upgrades along the Yonge-Eglinton corridor — and she doesn’t like that it happens on the second Sunday in May, Mother’s Day.
It also comes just a week after another race shuts down roads in the area.
“Everybody grins and bears it, but it’s the layering affect,” said Robinson, (Ward 25, Don Valley West), who is also chair of the city’s public works and infrastructure committee. “It starts to get frustrating for people and we’re trying to manage all that.”
As a consequence, it’s getting harder for race organizers to secure the city’s approval every year.
They’ve been leaned on to move the event, which is known for its Yonge St. route, as far away as Etobicoke or to change the race date to April, when weather can be a deterrent for recreational runners and families pushing children in strollers.
Now, just days before the planned registration launch on Wednesday to kick off fundraising efforts for next year’s race, organizers still don’t have the go-ahead from the city.
“We’re still trying to work on this,” Robinson said Friday.
“We were hoping to look for another date for the Sporting Life run but we can’t find another date, so I don’t think that’s even in the cards for this year. I think what we will be doing is moving this south of the Eglinton-Yonge corridor,” she said.
As long as the city comes up with a workable route to make up the lost distance for the race down Yonge St., which ends on the waterfront at Coronation Park, organizers say they’ll make it work. They’ve accommodated other requests in the past, such as moving to an earlier 7:30 a.m. start time to clear the area well in time for people to get to their Mother’s Day brunches. But what of next year’s demands? This race — and, by extension, Camp Ooch — is caught up in a longstanding battle for space on Toronto’s congested streets.
And it’s a battle that the charity race — caught between the city and owners of duelling for-profit marathons — doesn’t seem to be winning.
“This event is critical to our operation and sends sick kids to camp, and I’m concerned,” said Alex Robertson, chief executive of Camp Oochigeas.
“It feels like there are politics getting in the way of allowing a great event to support a great cause.”
The organizers lost their original run day, the first Sunday in May, when the city tried to solve the problem of having two fall marathons by moving one to the spring.
For 2012, Jay Glassman’s marathon, then sponsored by GoodLife Fitness, was given their 10K date, bumping them to the following Sunday, Mother’s Day. Alan Brookes’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon has remained the city’s only fall marathon in October.
Brookes’s run, which has gained international recognition, has continued to grow and attracts 25,000 runners who raised $3.6 million for various charities this year.
Glassman’s run, by contrast, has struggled and is now far smaller. This year, some 6,000 runners raised $59,000 for the run’s primary charity, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
But according to Glassman, his race date for next year has already been approved and he’s faced no recent pressure to move his date or his route through the Yonge-Eglinton corridor.
That’s part of what frustrates Camp Ooch supporters.
“There’s a disconnect — why is one event that does so much for the community being held back while other events that do not have the same strengths get to go ahead?” Robertson said.
“I understand there’s some history with races but that was years ago. Currently, this is a premier event for Toronto and it does great things for a cause,” he said.
For years, Maggie Harkness ran the Sporting Life 10K for fun, but now it has taken on new meaning.
Her son, Henry Thompson, started having trouble walking and a week before his 6th birthday, he was given the diagnosis that no parent wants to hear: cancer.
In 2016, he started chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The treatment caused his hair to fall out and he felt ill, but that summer he still got to have fun at Camp Ooch.
“One of the things about Henry’s diagnosis that we couldn’t believe is how the community came together and helped us so much. Even in this big city . . . the feeling of community is unbelievable,” Harkness said.
This year she ran the race with her husband, Mark Thompson, and an extended fundraising group of family, friends and community members wearing “I’m with Henry” T-shirts.
“This time (the run) involved a lot more tears, suppression of tears and hugs,” she said.
For many Torontonians, running events — along with walks, festivals and parades — create an important sense of community and add vibrancy to the city. But for other residents and businesses who worry about customers and parking restrictions, they are just another weekend traffic headache.
A councillor in a high-demand area like Robinson’s has to deal with both.
Robertson and the race director, Cory Freedman, both say they understand the multiple and sometimes conflicting demands on the city’s roadways, but not why the burden of solving the problem always seems to fall on their race.
At this point, Robertson is anxiously waiting to hear from the city that the 2018 run can go ahead on Mother’s Day, and that a route down Yonge St. can be agreed upon.
“We really want to do the Nov. 15 launch — what’s the issue? We really can’t get a straight answer,” he said. “We just want to raise money for the camp and every day that goes by compromises our ability to do that.”
The city is still working on the logistical puzzle, made all the worse next year by numerous TTC-related disruptions in the Yonge-Eglinton corridor, Robinson said.
“We’re not 100-per-cent there yet,” she said. “I’m hoping next week.”
“It feels like there are politics getting in the way of allowing a great event to support a great cause.” ALEX ROBERTSON CAMP OOCHIGEAS CHIEF EXECUTIVE