Sydney Lang wants you to run for WICAC
2012
Nine-year-old West Island resident Sydney Lang, a Grade 4 student at Sherwood Forest Elementary school in Beaconsfield, has raised $825 for the West Island Crusade Against Cancer (wicac.ca), made her parents and younger brother proud, and learned how good it feels to set goals — and meet them.
Here’s how it happened.
Sydney and her mother, Lisa Garfinkle, had started to run with each other “as a nice way to spend some time together and get outside,” Garfinkle wrote to Applause. After a few months of gradually increasing the distances they covered, they decided to run a 2-km race in May — part of the Ottawa marathon.
“The venue was buzzing with excitement as thousands of people of all ages were getting ready for the race,” Garfinkle recalled in her email. “And as we crossed the finish line, Sydney looked at me with such a sense of accomplishment, touched my arm and said: ‘I never felt like this before.’”
The girl asked if they could do another race together — but this time, she said, she wanted to raise money to help children in need. “It was truly a wonderful moment as a parent,” Garfinkle wrote.
Sydney decided she wanted to help a local charity. She emailed Jim Morrison, founder of WICAC, a not-for-profit organization that holds fundraising events to give money to organizations helping people with cancer and their families: The Canadian Cancer Society, NOVA West Island and the West Island Palliative Care Centre.
Morrison was supportive from the outset, Garfinkle wrote; when Sydney asked if he knew of a program specifically for children, he told her of the Carousel program, a children’s support and bereavement program run by Nova West Island, and arranged for her to meet its director.
Sydney decided to participate in the Crusade Against Cancer, a 5-km run organized by WICAC. She emailed family members and friends and, as word of her involvement spread, “she received such positive feedback and support from family and friends as well as the Running Room, members from the Pointe Claire Ladies Softball League and the Kirkland Men’s Softball League,” wrote Garfinkle, a sports photographer (teamphoto.ca) who also runs a school and medical centre she established in India.
WICAC is holding its annual fun run on Saturday July 9, 2016- 9am. Four categories: 10K and 5K run, 5K walk. and 1K kids walk. Registration at www.runningroom.com, click Cancer Crusade Run. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
2016 marks our 20th year of community giving. Let's make this the best to date.
