Run for Mom fundraiser brings out best in community

Photo by Vince Fedoroff

Some walked, others ran, but no matter how the participants in this year’s Run for Mom fundraiser chose to finish the event, all of them were doing it for the right reasons.
The annual fundraiser was held Sunday at Rotary Peace Park, with Yukoners of all ages to support the fight against breast cancer.
“It’s always a heart warming event,“ said Val Pike, the chair of the Run for Mom committee.

“I always sort of get goose bumps because it is so neat to see the community pull together and support a cause like breast cancer.“
Before the run began, Whitehorse General Hospital received a total of $600,000, which was donated by the committee that holds the event.

The money is a result of fundraising efforts made since 2001 and will be used to purchase a digital mammography unit for the hospital. 
This was the 10th anniversary for the Run for Mom fundraiser.

The event was first held in 1997 as a result of interest in the community about raising money for the hospital, which at the time was coincidentally looking to replace its very aging mammography unit.
In its inaugural year more than $40,000 was raised, however most of it left the territory to go to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
The committee was disappointed by the loss of the majority of the money raised and took the following year off to go over their options.
In 1999, the group decided to create the territory’s own Run for Mom fundraiser.

The idea was to hold an event that Yukoners could participate in and support, while all of the money raised would stay in the territory.
In 2001, the mammography unit that the hospital presently uses was purchased, along with the corresponding film processor. 

The total cost involved with both purchases was $126,000.
Due to the rapid changes in technology in the medical field, an upgrade to the digital mammogram is needed. Run for Mom has been saving proceeds since the 2001 to purchase the new piece of equipment.
The $600,000 will be used to purchase a digital mammography unit, valued somewhere between $450,000 to $550,000.
Some of the advantages to using a digital upgrade include being able to transfer the image electronically in real time.

This will eliminate the three week wait period that most women have to go through before they can see the results of their mammogram.
The hospital plans to look at a mammography unit sometime this week and hopes to have it up and running sometime this year.
A fundraising BBQ was also held this year in honour of the 10th anniversary and featured hamburgers and hot dogs, which were sold for $3.
Other fundraising efforts included the sale of black running shirts, which were priced $50 and white T-shirts that were valued at $25.
The logo for the T-shirts is designed by a local artist every year for the fundraiser.

Any remaining shirts not sold from Sunday’s event will be available at the hospital for individuals interested in purchasing them.
Pike, who is also the community liaison representative at the hospital, said the digital mammogram will be a great benefit to the Yukon.
“Breast cancer affects all of us,“ she said.

“They say that one in eight women will sometime in their lifetime develop breast cancer. A pretty staggering number when you think of it, so the sooner we can provide earlier detection means faster treatment. We can save more lives, so that’s what the digital machine will mean. It will mean that we will get faster results.“
She said the $600,000 is thanks to the community support that Run for Mom has received over the years.
“The $600,000 that’s going to the digital mammography; that has been years of hard work from the community,“ Pike said. “For a small community our size, it is really quite overwhelming, just for one particular event or one particular cause.“
Pike said despite purchasing the machine, the Run for Mom fundraiser will continue to be held annually.

“After this we will be looking at the years to come and probably additional components that we can add to the machine,“ she said.

“So we are not sure what that is going to look like at this point in time, but for sure there will be another event next year.“
Charly Kelly is the coach of the Klondike Blizzards, a girls’ rep out-door soccer team.
This was the second year in a row the Blizzards have participated in the Run for Mom fundraiser and the group even wore their uniforms to showcase they are a team.
Kelly, who has been participated in the Run for Mom event since the very first year, said she was pleased with how the fundraising race went for her team.
“It went excellent,“ she said. “I would say over half of our girls ran it in under 30 minutes, which is excellent for us.“
She said it was important for the team to continue to take part in the event.
“We are a girls team, there are only three girls teams right now, and we thought to support our moms who come out and watch all of our games,“ Kelly said.

“It’s a great opportunity and it’s a nice training.

This is a great for us to come out and start our running outside. We have just started our outdoor season this past weekend, so this is our first run together.“
Claire Desmarais and Cindy Gilday are members of the 2008 Paddlers Abreast team, who will compete at this year’s Yukon River Quest in June and took part in the 2008 Run for Mom fundraiser.
Paddlers Abreast are a group of breast cancer survivors who participate as a team in the Yukon River Quest every year.
In 2001 the Yukon River Quest, created a special category and gave the group permission to paddle together in a voyageur canoe, rather than in the previously required two-person canoes or kayaks.

The following year, a new voyageur category was officially added to the Yukon River Quest.
The idea came through the groups knowledge of dragonboat racing, which is a sport undertaken by teams of breast cancer survivors in many Canadian cities. 
However, in the Yukon there is no access to dragonboating, so the idea was born to create their own northern version.
The team’s goals involve undertaking a journey that is both physically and mentally challenging, to raise awareness about breast cancer and to help encourage and demonstrate to other women living with breast cancer that they can lead full, active and healthy lives. 
The organization just began its fundraising campaign, which this year includes the sale of a film made in 2007 about the group titled “The River of Life.“
The film will be shown in June as an opening presentation at an international conference being held in Winnipeg.
Run for Mom is providing the funding for two members of Paddlers Abreast, including Desmarais, to travel to Winnipeg to attend the conference for a question and answer session. Run for Mom also provides funding for the team to participate in the Yukon River Quest.

The DVD can be purchased at Well Read Books for $20.
Desmarais said another goal for the Yukon River Quest is to finish the race in under 100 hours, which is the cut off time for the event.
“The first year, all of us came off the river tired, of course, and aching, but we felt so good that we set a goal for ourselves and we did it,“ Desmarais said.

“It made us realize first of all that we could do it and then we wanted to give the opportunity to other people to have that same experience. I think now we have had about 32 women who have paddled and some people are already lining up for next year’s race. They are already training for next year.“
Gilday said racing in the River Quest is very uplifting.
“We do it for awareness and we do it to help other breast cancer survivors,“ she said.

“It’s empowering, just to give back a sense of being out there and really living.“
Both Gilday and Desmarais were impressed by the number of people who took part in this year’s Run for Mom fundraiser.
“It’s pretty amazing to see so many people turn out for this,“ Desmarais said.

“It’s kind of sobering in a way because you see people with little signs on their backs saying they are running for their mother or for their aunt or their sisters and stuff like that. It really hits home what a horrible disease this is.“
Gilday said it is important that the money stays in the Yukon.
“The big thing here is that this event, the money stays here,“ she said.

“It used to go out to large organizations and we would get to keep a portion or they would send back a portion, but this is now all of ours, all of our money. I think that is why we get so many people because they realize that we are raising money for the territory and the hospital.“
Four other local communities also held their own Run for Mom events this year, including Watson Lake, Carmacks, Haines Junction and Atlin, B.C.