21st annual MS Walk breaks attendance record
Posted Apr 29, 2012 05:24:33 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The 21st annual MS Walk set a new record Sunday morning as more than 1,400 people laced up to walk for the cure for Multiple Sclerosis.
By 7a.m. participants had raised more than $200,000 but by 10a.m. they’d added $100,000 to that and organizers were still hoping to top the 2011 total of $328,000. Donations can be made to the MS Walk up until May 28.
All the money raised goes to supporting local services that help people living with multiple sclerosis and to fund research into the cause of the disease and finding the cure.
Organizer Leanne Anderson told 1310News this year’s routes take participants along the Ottawa River Parkway.
“There’s a two-and-a-half, a five, and a seven ‘k’ route,” she said before the event began, adding it isn’t only walking.
“You can run it if you want and this year we have the Rideau Valley Roller Derby Girls out. So they’re going to be rolling along the route and I think they’re going to do the 7k route twice.”
U-S Ambassador David Jacobson also took part, organizing a team made up of people from the American Embassy in Ottawa.
“One of the people who works with the embassy has MS,” Jacobson explained. “So we have a team of people here who are supporting him and supporting the cause.”
He explained he was also walking for a friend in his hometown of Chicago, “who’s had it for quite some time so I know what it can do to a person.”
He wasn’t alone in walking for a loved one. Nearly everyone taking part had a connection to the disease whether they live with it themselves or have friends, family members or co-workers living with MS.
For more information head to the MS Society website.
