Rain and cool temperatures didn’t stop a group of committed runners from coming out to Centennial Park in Barrie Sunday morning to take part in the second annual Run for Barrie Charity Run.
The event, organized by Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association Barrie Chapter, is aimed at supporting local charities and non-profit organizations. This year’s run, said Ihtisham Ahmed, social media promotion and co-organizer, was raising funds for the RVH Foundation’s Keep Life Wild campaign.
Last year’s event raised $8,000 for the Barrie Food Bank, he said, adding the goal was to meet - and hopefully exceed - that amount with this year’s run.
"We are doing this in support of Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre Foundation’s Keep Life Wild campaign, which is all about creating more accessibility of their health care to more people. As Ahmadiyya Muslims we try our best to make an impact for the community wherever we reside. We don’t do this to do any favours, we do this because it’s our duty,” said Ahmed. “Whoever our partner is, we always try to impact our community … and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association will always be making efforts to support the people who are amongst us.”
Evert Akkerman travelled to Barrie from Newmarket to take part in the race, and was excited to get running, despite the pouring rain.
“I love the vibe of race day and it’s a great cause - it always is. I just love the exercise and try to achieve as good of a run as I can,” said Akkerman, who attended last year’s event as well. “The organizing committee is very enthusiastic and I figure this is my way of supporting the community.”
Last year’s event saw a little over 200 runners participate, said Ahmed, adding while the hope was to exceed that this year, he was unsure of the official number of registrants, acknowledging the rain and cold weather may have kept some at home.
“We are trying to keep our spirits up. The volunteers have been very hard working. They were here at 1 a.m. and back at 6 a.m. to set up. We have been preparing for this for months, so we are trying to keep our spirits high and we want to make sure that we make a really good impact,” he said.
The initial goal was to raise $15,000, he said, telling BarrieToday that as of about 10 a.m. they had raised around $8,000, however more donations were still expected to come in.
Ahmed was impressed by the dedication from both the volunteers and the participants as they waited under tents for the race to begin.
"To be completely honest, I wasn't expecting this much energy from people, but it’s really nice. I am happy to see people are willing to support us and come together as a community, despite this challenging weather,” he said. “Our goal is to just support our community first and foremost. We are open to helping whoever is willing to accept our help. We are happy to give.”
