Supporters from across the Comox Valley gathered to help raise $250,000 and awareness as the team of eight members trek 800 kilometres from Port Hardy to Victoria.
The eight-day event runs from Feb. 23 to Mar. 2 and according to event organizers is designed to help raise funds and awareness for mental health programs that support Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans, first responders, and their families.
According to the Wounded Warrior website, over $131,000 has been raised to support the cause, and Canadian Armed Forces Warrant Officer and co-founder Dan Bodden said this year not only has fundraising been ‘on-point’, but morale couldn’t be higher.
“It has gone tremendously well so far this year,” he says. “Fundraising is ahead of schedule; we have a great group. We have the routine and stops down, and we have a super time.
“We all love running.”
Bodden started his first two runs in 2014 and 2015 around the same time, and season because he says bringing the community of first responders and military members together was pivotal to help make an impact in mental health recovery.
“We picked the wintertime and running because it’s difficult,” he says. “I felt at the time with the amount of first responders and military members engaging in self-harm and suicide I figured we were doing something wrong.
“I wanted to assert ourselves as military members and first responders as leaders in mental health.”
Bodden says the first inaugural run they were unprepared for how much community support this event would foster.
“The first time we walked into the Port Hardy Legion it was packed, there was standing room only, we haven’t done anything yet and we had a standing ovation,” he says. “Even today, the reception has been tremendous.”
The next stops are Port Alberni, Parksville, Nanaimo, Ladysmith, Chemainus, Duncan, Shawnigan Lake, Mill Bay, Langford, Esquimalt and then Victoria
The team will continue their run until Mar. 2, and they’ll close out the run with a grand finale at Market Square.
Interview done by Hussam Elghussein, Reporter VistaRadio (mycomoxvalleynow.com)
