The Guru Gobind Singh Children’s Foundation will be hosting its first-ever Children’s Run Across Canada to raise funds for children less fortunate in Canada and abroad. Participants will travel from coast-to-coast collecting donations along the way – with a stop in Midland scheduled for July 22 and 23.
“The (foundation) is a network of children and youth that operate under a mandate of children helping children,” said media co-ordinator Sandeep Dhillon.
The Children’s Run Across Canada – which starts July 1 in St. John’s, N.L., and ends Aug. 30 at Stanley Park in Vancouver – will be the biggest run the organization has ever done.
“Obviously, children will only do a leg … to contribute to the overall goal of running across Canada and raising money for children’s hospitals and an organization in Liberia,” Dhillon said, adding she’s expecting approximately 100 youths between the ages of five and 25 to participate in each leg of the run.
Dhillon said the runners are looking forward to visiting different communities.
“The children are really enthusiastic to do it because they will get to see different places in Canada they may not have been before,” she said. “A lot of the children are motivated to take part because they feel they will get to see other communities and will be able to inspire other people to get involved in similar causes that specifically help children.”
There won’t be any local runners participating, but Dhillon said she hopes Midland residents will come out and support them anyway.
“They want to inspire other communities. In looking at them, (you might) think this is not a huge group, but it’s a huge project they’ve taken on to run from coast-to-coast,” she said. “In coming out and seeing their spirit and their dedication to meet their fundraising goals and actually make it from coast to coast, children and youth and adults will be inspired.”
Dhillon said they are hoping to raise $110,000 from the event, which will allow the group to donate $10,000 to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, $10,000 to a hospital in every other province, and $10,000 to an overseas project in Liberia.
For more information, visit www.ggscf.com.
nmillion@simcoe.com
