CIBC "Run for the Cure"

On Sunday, October 4th, I had the pleasure of walking in my third ever "Run for the Cure" fundraiser for Breast Cancer Research. This was my second year in a row walking for a team called "Ann's Army", a team made up of OPG employees, and their family, and friends. Both years, we have won the corporate award, rasing the most of any organization involved. One year I walked for a team called "Freshly Squeezed", a team sponsored by Norfolk General Hospital's Ontario Breast Sceening Program. The "Run for the Cure", is held all across Canada and has helped raise millions of dollars for breast cancer research. This event, started out small and has grown by leaps and bounds as the years have rolled by. Each year, many more people are affected by this horrible disease and we are all there for one reason or another, but most of all for wanting to help find a cure. In our location alone (Simcoe, ON), there were over 1,400 participants. It was amazing to see a sea of pink walking through the streets of Simcoe.

I've met so many lovely people through participating in this event. Last year, I brought my Bichon Poo Rosie, who stole many hearts there. A wonderful lady who walked with me wanted to walk Rosie. I have to say she did a fine job making Rosie heel. We all enjoyed our 5 km walk. This year, I brought Rosie again, along another addition to the family, another Bichon Poo who is called Lily. A friend of mine was at a dog show a few weeks back and picked up a pink doggie stroller for me. Since I had the two dogs to deal with, I brought the stroller along to make things a bit easier. What a conversation piece this was indeed. The local paper asked me if they could take our picture, it was great. As it turned out, the same lady from last year wanted to walk Rosie again (I think she really likes Rosie), and to top it all off, a girl I work with wanted to walk Lily. It was nice to see Lily heeling with her as well. There wasn't a dog for me to walk, so there I was walking an empty stroller for 4 km. We put the girls in the stroller for the last kilometer because they were tired, and they were as good as gold. I am so thankful to a co-worker who snapped the featured picture. I would not have had an epic picture if it wasn't for him.

I hope to be involved again next year, and I look forward to again witnessing the heartfelt spirit that is definitely a big part of this event. I'm proud to be a part of such a passionate group of supporters and survivors.