Whistler’s event will start at Meadow Park, with registration at 9:30 followed by a race at 10 a.m. to Rainbow Park and back. The course is open to runners, walkers, bikes, inline skates, scooters, skateboard and pedal bikes, and the event will be followed by a barbecue, face painting for kids, exhibitions by sponsors and a wide range of contests and draws.
The goal is to build the event into something like the Terry Fox Run, with half the proceeds remaining in participating communities to improve treatment and quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries, and half going towards spinal cord research.
"Our goal it to put on a great event for our community to come together, have some fun, meet new people and help make a difference in the lives of people living in our community with a spinal cord injury," said Craig McDonald, the event co-ordinator.
According to the Rick Hansen Man In Motion foundation, 10 million Canadians know or are related to someone with a spinal cord injury. Some 84 per cent of all injuries are to people under the age of 34, and health care costs over a lifetime can range anywhere from $1.25 million to $25 million.
More than 60 per cent of people with spinal cord injuries are unemployed.
Still, there is hope as current research and new technologies and techniques for dealing with spinal cord injury have had a huge impact. About 90 per cent of all spinal cord breakthroughs and discoveries have come in the last 10 years.
For more information on the local event, contact Craig McDonald at www.cmcdonald@whistler.ca. For more information on the Rick Hansen Main In Motion Foundation visit www.rickhansen.com.
