The Canadian Cancer Society and CIBC are inviting Grande Prairie residents to join a reimagined Run for the Cure. Grande Prairie Run Director Janice Lovejoy says the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has rendered difficulties throughout the campaign to keep people motivated.
“At this point, we’ve just done a lot of our Facebook stuff, lots of pictures from last year and trying every day to put something [online],” she says.
Despite the challenges, however, she adds she has been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have indicated they will be joining the run.
“We’ve got more people signed up already than I thought we would; just because usually the motivation is you hear it, you see it, but now they themselves are going online to check things out.”
Adhering to social distancing protocols, the CIBC Run for the Cure will be hosting a virtual event run through a mobile app. Through the app, participants are able to fundraise to unlock rewards and track their activity. On run day, opening ceremonies will be streamed online prior to folks being encouraged to head out to walk or run in their neighbourhoods.
Lovejoy says people generally come out to participate because somebody in their lives has been impacted by breast cancer in one way or another, and want to do something to help make a difference.
“You never know; you could be standing next to someone and in three months from now, they could be very ill,” she says. “My thing always is, we do this research today so that we can find a cure tomorrow, so that person standing next to you may get sick, but we have something to make them better… everyone we know is touched by breast cancer in one way or another.”
The opening ceremonies will be live-streamed on the Canadian Cancer Society’s Facebook and YouTube channels at 9:30 a.m. MST on Sunday, October 4th.