A total of 70 participants and 40 volunteers took part in the walk on Sunday morning at Sunningdale School, braving the cool conditions to be part of an event that has become near and dear to many in the Friendly City.
“It’s fantastic,” MS Society community coordinator Amy Bosche said of the turnout and support. “It’s such a prevalent disease in Saskatchewan, over 3,700 people live with this disease and on top of that we have family and friends and caretakers who are affected. So it’s definitely needed that we’re raising awareness and raising the funds for research... we always say ‘somebody knows somebody with MS.'”
The event included greetings from Moose Jaw mayor Fraser Tolmie and featured a pre-walk presentation from Megan Strube – who has lived with MS for five years and has been a major contributor to the walk ever since. Team Megan has brought in around $25,000 the last four years, hitting a further $5,085 this year.
In total, local supporters raised $16,000, led individually by long-time supporter Lindsay Newsham with $1,960, Linda Smallwood at $1,700 and Gwen Failler at $1,515.
“That’s amazing,” Bosche said. “We always say Moose Jaw is such a close-knit community and they really do come together to support a cause. Family and friends always open up their wallets and raise that money, and we’re always really appreciative of that support.
“Across the province we expect to raise $480,000 and I actually think we’re going to beat that this year, so that’s awesome.”
