Saturday in Winnipeg

Hello everyone,
Up bright and early to be at Assiniboine Park by 6:45 am. The morning is much warmer than yesterday (7 degrees Friday morning) and this would pose a bit of a problem later on. I will explain more after. There are 1100 walkers out in Winnipeg and they raised 2.6 m for the Manitoba Cancer Care program. Over 5m raised in the two years of the walk!!
We do our stretches and watch the opening ceremonies and leave the park by 7:15 am . Now I mentioned it was cooler the previous morning so Pat and I wore a long sleeved (wick away) shirt and our "Believe" shirts on top and we each had a jacket and I had an extra pair of shoes tied to my fanny pack. So we start out on our next adventure at a quick pace and I am about 500 yards into "our next adventure" and I have taken off my jacket and I am hot already. In addition to this, all I can think of is I am going to have to put up with my shoes bouncing off my butt for the next 34.5 kms. I am not out of the park and all I can think of is how much I appreciate those friends who crewed for us in Ottawa and (hopefully) Toronto. I MISSED YOU GUYS.....actually I missed the van but you guys too. Oh am I going to pay for that one!
So we get the clothes organized and start off...again. We walked through the great neighbourhoods of Winnipeg and at 8:45 we walk past a house that has six little girls, the oldest one about eight, sitting outside on the front porch wrapped up in pink blankets with pink PJ's on waving at us and cheering us on. It hits you again....like a weight on your chest.....they know what breast cancer is and they shouldn't. I didn't know what it was at that age and I had already lost an aunt to it by the time I was 6. My cousin (my aunt's daughter) was already living with us because she had lost both of her parents before she was 8. Her dad to a heart attack and her mom to breast cancer. I knew my aunt had passed away but did not know why and here are these little girls up out of bed, sitting outside cheering us on. I love seeing them but at the same time it breaks my heart that they know about breast cancer. Something is not right.
Most of our day is spent in the neighbourhoods of Winnipeg and what great neighbourhoods they are. Tree lined streets with some huge homes and some with quaint cottage type homes. One home had a sign on the front lawn explaining the unusual tree it had on the front lawn. It was an apple tree the owner had tried to save for seven years but finally had to cut the branches back. With the tree bare, they had inserted metal leaves into the branches. It was something they saw in England and thought they would do it to their apple tree. It was very unique. What was better though was the sign they had on their front lawn which explained it all. The other thing you would see on the trees was a band around the trees. The other place that I had seen these types of bands was down in the Caribbean. These bands though were around the trees to protect the leaves from the canker worm. These bands would be plaster with a mixture that was (apparently) stickier than molasses. These canker worms would then get stuck in this mixture and not be able to get up the tree to eat the leaves. We were lucky enough not to experience the Manitoba mosquitoes however these canker worms are all over the place. So much so, that even on Monday morning at the airport there was still one on my coat. In Ontario we think these canker worms are cute because we call them....inch worms. In Winnipeg when you are trying to eat your lunch in a park....not so cute.
Victor.....I don't think that a female walker was able to get passed Victor without giving him a hug. I am honoured I was able to give Victor a hug. Victor is 79 years old and is a breast cancer survivor. This is the second time Victor has done the walk. He was the second highest fund raiser this year, raising $22,207 for breast cancer research. He has lost 9 people to cancer in his family or in his wife's family. He has survived four cancer surgeries himself over the last 17 years. Last year Victor walked 41 kms in total. On Saturday this year, in temperatures that were around 85 degrees he walked 21 kms in a white dress shirt and navy blue dress pants. Apparently he did not walk as much this year as last because he had a couple of surgeries over the last year and he was still recovering from them. I know that I will be thinking of Victor in one of my next walks when I think my feet hurt or I am tired. I am 42....he is 79. Enough said. Just another amazing story that I would not of experienced except for the walk. Victor is a shining example of never being too old to make a difference in someone's life. Those little girls....in their own way made a difference for me that day. You are never too old or young to make a difference.
That is what the walks are about....ordinary people you see everyday effected by this disease either directly or indirectly and the ordinary people trying to make an extrordinary difference now and in the future.
With love and thanks,
M.J.