Canada Turns Teal - thanks to Awareness Month and Walk
September 19, 2013
First, Ovarian Cancer Canada launched its awareness campaign with the messaging Know Teal, Talk Teal, Share Teal and introduced Wear Teal Day on the first Friday of September. Then the 12th annual Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope on Sunday, September 8 was a resounding success. More than 10,000 participants came together in 45 locations to raise awareness and exceeded this year's fundraising goal - reaching $2.4 million to help overcome the country’s most fatal women’s cancer.
“A fabulous year for the Walk”
"We’re hearing from people across Canada that they loved the 2013 Walk; the stories are wonderful,” says CEO Elisabeth Ross. “Our heartfelt thanks to our national sponsors KPMG and the Laura Mercier Ovarian Cancer Fund, and to all our local sponsors, teams and individual walkers and donors. We are so grateful to our Walk co-chairs, committees and volunteers who make this event happen year after year. We simply could not do it without your generosity and dedication.”
Survey results from Walk participants are pouring in from across Canada. “The overall feedback is that it has been a fabulous year for the Walk,” says Dianne Sheridan, VP Community Engagement. "We are so fortunate to have the most outstanding and committed volunteers who worked in true partnership with our staff. Together they reached out to local teams and individual participants - making connections earlier, thanking, engaging and supporting them leading up to the Walk. While the number of individual walkers continuted to grow this year, we also had more teams, with more members and more spirit then ever before."
Experience hard to put into words
The Walk was a huge success thanks to our volunteers across the country
For Bonnie Dey, a new volunteer co-chair of the event in Windsor, Ontario, this year’s Walk was “over the top for me. This was the biggest event I’ve ever been involved in organizing and I was nervous about it,” says Bonnie.
“You cannot do this work and not get emotionally overwhelmed at times. But we’re here to get the awareness message out, to give it a voice so more people know about this disease and we can change women’s stories. What an amazing experience – the Walk couldn’t have turned out any better.”
Although Tracy Kolwich is a six-year veteran of the Walk, the 2013 event took on special significance for Ovarian Cancer Canada’s Pacific Regional Manager. “This was the first year that I was Ambassador for the Walk in Vancouver, where our office is located. I’ve always been in other cities on Walk day,” explains Tracy.
“It’s hard to even put into words what it meant to be with the women I’ve come to know, their families, friends, colleagues and our tremendous team of volunteers. For the co-chairs and committee volunteers in particular, it was a celebration of their unwavering commitment to put on such a tremendous and important event. I spent my time visiting, hugging, sharing, chatting and supporting. It was an extraordinary day and I was honoured to be a part of it.”
Celebrating award winners
Christa and Cindy at the 2013 Winnipeg Walk.
Ovarian Cancer Canada’s Peggy Truscott Award of Hope for outstanding volunteerism was presented to Walk co-chairs and twin sisters Cindy Sanchez and Christa Slatnik at the Winnipeg Walk and to Helen Ferris at the Saskatoon Walk.
Congratulations to the country’s Top Fundraising Team, the BC Women Lawyers Forum , which raised $33,141.11 by the competition deadline of September 4 and as of today has raised $38,036.11 online. Bravo to Jeff LeRoy of the Burlington, Ontario Walk, who is the country’s Top Individual Fundraiser. Jeff brought in $16,154 by the competition deadline and as of today, he has raised a total $16,769. Check out our list of Top Teams and Top Individual fundraisers.
Looking ahead to 2014
What’s in store for the 2014 Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope? “We will continue to support family teams who represent over 80% of our teams across the country,” says Dianne. “We also hope to build on the successes we had this year working with and developing corporate and organizational teams, an area for potential growth.”
“The Walk is critical to the success of our work because we do not receive government funding,” adds Elisabeth. “We have to raise the funds we need in order to increase awareness of ovarian cancer, empower individuals through knowledge, support research initiatives, and help women and their families who are living with the disease.”
Elisabeth reminds everyone that September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month “so please don’t stop now – our work is not done. Continue to talk about the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer and help save women’s lives. The teal movement is gaining momentum and people are looking to Ovarian Cancer Canada to be an even stronger voice for women. I think you’ll see that reflected in our programming over the next year.”
Support our Expedition of Hope team!
Another big part of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month is next week’s inaugural Expedition of Hope. The hike up Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, is in support of Ovarian Cancer Canada. Help propel our Expedition hikers to the summit. Check out our list of hikers and support one (or more!) from your region.
Other ways you can get involved now