WALK FOR LUPUS 2011

Saskatoon

Alayna's School Walk

Regina

Moose Jaw

Meadow Lake

The preparation for the 2011 walk started with a name and logo change that more clearly identified the walk: ‘WALK FOR LUPUS’ rather than Walk a Block. The momentum started to build with a user friendly website: www.walkforlupus.ca allowing the participants the ability to register and structure their walk. Online sponsorship gave sponsors the flexibility to pay by credit card of their choice and to receive their electronic tax receipt immediately. Visit the website and see the top fundraiser participants and teams: #5 Melissa McLaughlin, Meadow Lake raising $4,822 and #10 Judy Nagus raising $3,525.

Karen Harder and Mark Weger from Prince Albert started in April by registering with a Virtual Walk for Prince Albert. Karen reached out to the community and Sobeys responded by allowing her to set up a table for 3-5 hours for 4 days, April 20-23rd. Prince Albert local radio station, 900 CKBI donated air time to Karen’s Virtual Walk. Through combined efforts of Karen and Mark they raised $1,487.09.

Again thanks to Alayna Schmidt for being ‘the face’ on the Saskatoon Walk For Lupus poster. Though she is only 10 years old, Alayna continues to be the youth ambassador of Lupus SK to help with public awareness and education. Alayna did her class Walk at Mother Teresa School on May 4th. Both grade 5 classes took part in the walk. 50 walkers sported white Walk For Lupus T-shirts and red Lupus caps. Alayna started the program by explaining Lupus and why we were doing this walk. Super public awareness, Alayna! The participants walked from Mother Teresa to the Forestry Farm and then back to the school.

Melissa McLaughlin and her committee started organizing their Meadow Lake ‘Walk For Lupus’ early in 2011 with lots of added features to their walk set for Saturday May 7th. They chose the Meadow Lake’s Lions Park-Football field and track for the location. They planned events for the children and had prizes as well. They also had a raffle for two pairs of designer sunglasses with all the proceeds going to the walk. Thanks to generous donations by the Meadow Lake Co-Op and Meadow Lake Extra Foods. All the proceeds from the barbeque went to the walk as well. The weather was a cold overcast day so not many children attended and they had to cancel the children’s event, but those that did attend received a prize. The Meadow Lake Progress, a local newspaper did an excellent story along with photos for their coverage. Their walk commenced at 10:30 am and continued throughout the afternoon. Many people stopped throughout the day to show their support and make donations. In total the Meadow Lake walk raised $6,582 with both online and offline donations. One of the major sponsors was the Dorintosh Lion’s Club who donated $500 to the walk. They had 40 people attending, a huge success considering the cold temperatures! Thanks Melissa for the excellent ideas of how to make our walks even more successful.

Chantelle Cushway and Marianne Weber from Moose Jaw started their Walk for Lupus fundraising in Dec 2010 working with the Moose Jaw Warriors hockey team doing a “Chuck A Puck”. Next they did a Mom’s Pantry fundraiser and raised $297.16. Moose Jaw held their walk on May 7th at Crescent Park. Approximately 25 people attended the walk. The Moose Jaw Express & Moose Jaw Times Herald came to the walk, took photos and did interviews for their newspapers. In total the Moose Jaw walk raised $2,117.30.

Prior to the May 8th walk in Saskatoon, we had excellent public awareness with CTV, Shaw and Global television stations airing our updated ‘Public Service Announcement’ tape and the Saskatoon Walk For Lupus poster. The Walk For Lupus in Saskatoon is continuing to grow with the attendance being 85 in 2010 to 141 in 2011. Along with the increase of participants the weather was also more accommodating this year. We had a sunshiny day with 13 degrees by the beautiful Saskatoon River Landing location. Once again thank you to Honourable Don Morgan for bringing greetings on behalf of our SK government. It was great to have Dr. Alan Rosenberg attending again. The River Landing location provided an excellent location for the WFL banners and flag being visible to all enjoying the afternoon by the river. CTV came and did some footage as well as an interview that aired on the 6:00 pm and late night news. One of our walker’s was Marj Bassin, Merle Klein’s sister from San Juan Puerto Rico. Thanks Marj for coming the distance to join us.

Jason Harris from Regina contact Lupus SK that he would like to have a Walk For Lupus in Regina in memory of his grandma who passed away from lupus. Through Wascana Centre we were able to book the site east of the Legislative Building area by Trafalgar Fountain on May 28th. Although the day started out cloudy and rainy we were fortunate enough to have some sunshine for the walk around Wascana Lake. We had 27 very enthusiastic participants. Through the program some attending were already planning next year’s walk. Excellent media coverage which included a third page spot in the Leader Post. CTV Regina had a reporter at the event that took a lot of footage plus did an interview with Michelle Heichert, Irene Driedger and Lloyd Driedger. Way to go Regina!!!

At the time of this posting, Lupus SK has raised a total of $27,227.39. These funds will be divided with Lupus Canada and Lupus SK to again carry on with our Mission Statement. Thank you to everyone that made the SK 2011 Walk For Lupus a huge success.