Nearly 300 people took to Lake Ontario Park in Kingston on Saturday to take part in the Walk to End ALS, and blowing the area’s funding goal out of the water in the process.
22 communities are participating in fundraising walks across Ontario alone, with a few others hosted throughout provinces across the country in addition to a virtual walk that encourages fundraising and participation from anywhere.
Most of the walks are held during June, which marks ALS awareness month, but a few kicked off at the end of May before Kingston, with two more weekends of in person walks still to be held.
Kim Barry, President of Community Services for ALS Canada, says participation and fundraising in communities is often most driven by people close to those living with ALS.
She says while Kingston is not the biggest community and generally not the largest walk, an already lofty fundraising target was shattered.
“We have about 27 people living with ALS in the Kingston area right now, it’s not a significantly large walk,” Barry said.
“The goal was to raise $45,000, which is very generous of that community. “
As of Tuesday morning ALS Canada’s tracker had Kingston just shy of that $120,000 mark, but with donations still continuing to trickle in.
Barry pointed out the efforts of Marjorie Cooke and her supporters, who as a group have raised over $90,000 after an initial personal goal of $60,000.
She said that while their support this year was a massive part of Kingston’s fundraising, it’s an event that some community members have continued to be a part of for over 20 years.
Barry also says the fundraising record for Kingston being shattered comes as a surprise in any case, but especially since up until recently there was some nervousness about overall participation.
“Truthfully, just over a month ago, we were sitting with eight hundred dollars raised in Kingston,” Barry said.
“We were pretty concerned whether or not that was going to be able to go ahead, and then all of a sudden, families really just started fundraising and it’s been amazing to see.”
Barry says several communities have also surpassed funding goals, but the community of Kingston has really rallied in an unprecedented way.
The money raised goes towards providing support for those living with ALS, accounting for roughly 60% of proceeds, and the rest to fund research with an ultimate goal of a world free of ALS.
Since she started working with ALS Canada 12 years, Barry says there have been two new treatments approved for certain people with the disease, and while the ultimate goal is a treatment and a cure, there has been progress.
In Ontario, the province wide goal for fundraising is $2 million, and with eight walks left to go during the next two weekends a total of nearly $1.7 million has been raised.
