Ottawa Race Weekend raises record $1-million for charities as organizers look toward in-person 2022

In its second year going virtual, Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend organizers are blown away by the funds raised by its participants.

Event organizers announced, Wednesday, June 30, that a record-breaking $1,064,163.58 was raised for Scotiabank Charity Challenge charities this year.

“We are in awe of our community,” said Ian Fraser, executive director of Run Ottawa. 

Last year, participants in the virtual event raised just over $400,000 for local charities. In 2019, the last pre-pandemic in-person event, participants raised over $800,000. 

“We salute everyone who helped us reach this significant milestone in such an extraordinary year. We witnessed so many heroic fundraising efforts from our runners and walkers, who were wonderfully supported by our 51 charity leaders and inspired by their generous donors,” said Fraser. 

With the Canadian vaccination campaign well underway, and the return to in-person events throughout the world becoming a reality, Run Ottawa says it's started planning for a return to an in-person event on the weekend of May 28-29, 2022. 

Details are expected to be shared later this summer, but organizers say they are optimistic. 

“We are keeping an eye on the rest of the running world to see what works and what doesn’t for their return to in-person events,” said Fraser. “And of course, all of our decisions will be in line with public health guidelines in place at the time. But as of now, we are definitely planning for an in-person event next May. We just can’t wait to run together again in 2022!”