Kali MacDonald is best known for being the inspiration for the Hair Massacure but this year she’s wearing a different cap for the same cause.
The Morinville teen has been named as the honorary survivor for next weekend’s Relay for Life, a fundraising event held to drive up support for the Canadian Cancer Society while paying tribute to those who have lost their battles.
The 14-year-old said she was really touched to be given this position. She hopes that whatever amount of attention her recognizability offers will rally the multitudes to the relay.
“I know it would mean a lot to all the survivors and people still in treatment,” she said. “It’s a great cause and I’m looking forward to it myself. I recommend that people do come out.”
MacDonald was only two when she was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which required her to go through a few years of chemotherapy.
The third annual Relay for Life takes place at Fowler Athletic Park next Saturday starting at 7 p.m. For 12 hours, team members will take turns passing the torch as they continue their walk, an unending journey of remembrance for loved ones lost and an inspiring battle cry that the fight against cancer will never sleep.
Organizer Charlene Bouvier is grateful to have MacDonald on board.
“We talk to people and they [say] they’ve never heard of the relay or they didn’t realize we had it. We’re really getting our awareness out there,” Bouvier said.
She added that this is shaping up to be a banner year.
“We have way more teams, and they signed up early this year too, compared to last year,” she said.
Spots are still available for participants.
To learn more about the event or to register, please visit www.relayforlife.ca or email Bouvier at [email protected].
Breakfast needs support
On the Mayor’s Walk page that lists all of the charities in the running for community pledge dollars, Breakfast for Learning is only listed by name. There’s no explanation or description of what it does. There isn’t even a website.
And yet hundreds of St. Albert’s youngest and hungriest students depend on it every day so they have food in their bellies and energy to learn.
Glenys Edwards is the associate superintendent of planning and instruction with the St. Albert Protestant School district, and she’s also the organizer of the program. It is there to provide nutrition to those who are still going to class without the first and most important meal of the day.
“We run it fairly low-key. We don’t advertise it very much,” Edwards said. “We solicit donations quite quietly because we’re sensitive to the families who access the program and are not wanting any kind of a profile attached to that support. It’s done very discreetly in our schools.”
She said the Mayor’s Walk is a good community event that her program should be involved with. This is the third year that it has been one of the registered charities but Breakfast for Learning has actually been in operation in St. Albert for 10 years.
The local program is run in conjunction with the Breakfast for Learning Foundation, and it operates in 11 of the Protestant district’s schools. She said more than 100 students benefit from the program every day of the school year.
Visit www.breakfastforlearning.ca for more information on the program.
Visit www.royfinancialmayorswalk.com for details on the twelfth annual walk coming to St. Albert Place on Saturday, June 16. There are 34 charities registered for this year’s event, including Breakfast for Learning.
