Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/05/2009 (5114 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Today’s column features an update on a few recent columns and a whole lot of begging for dollars.

Go find your chequebooks and then read on:

First up is Kendra’s Walk For Kids, a fundraising event organized by 17-year-old Kendra McBain.

The St. John’s Ravenscourt Grade 12 student has rabdomyosarcoma, a cancer rare enough that only 100 cases have been diagnosed in North America and New Zealand in the past six years.

Having spent her high school years in treatment, she’s determined to give back to CancerCare Manitoba. She wants to raise enough money to reclaim a teen room in the pediatric clinic, refurbish it and give teenagers undergoing treatment their own private space.

On May 29, the first Kendra’s Walk for Kids will take place in the neighbourhood around SJR.

If you want to support her efforts, send a cheque made out to CancerCare Manitoba to either SJR or care of me at the Free Press.

I’ll let you know how she makes out.

* * *

Still with CancerCare Manitoba, I work with a lot of big-hearted and now bald folks. Monday morning, a number of Free Press staffers had their noggins shaved to benefit the organization.

(I sit next to Doug Speirs and am sorry to report he now looks like Mr. Potato Head).

I was not brave enough to go under the shears, primarily because I’m accident-prone and the surface of my head is zig-zagged with old scars, stitches and quite likely a few dents.

If you’d like to help support my colleagues’ efforts, please send a cheque made out to CancerCare Manitoba Foundation to Bucks for Baldies at the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., R2X 3B6.

* * *

On June 7, the 8th annual Breast Cancer Pledge Ride will be held. Manitoba’s motorcycling community has already raised over $223,000 to fight breast cancer in Manitoba.

Their goal this year is $250,000.

Registration is from 10 a.m. to noon at the Pony Corral Pier 7, 1700 Pembina Hwy. The registration fee is $20 but that will be waived for total donations raised over $50.

Go to www.breastcancerpledgeride.com for more information.

* * *

An event I’m taking part in is the Heart and Stroke Association’s Big Bike Ride on June 15.

We’ll be riding a 30-seat bike through town. At least one of us hopes to avoid broken bones.

Numerous friends, family members and Free Press readers have already pledged to support me. If you’d like to get in on the action, you can send me a cheque made out to the Heart and Stroke Association or donate online at www.bigbike.ca

There’s a prize for the top fundraiser. Competitive soul that I am, I’d like to be the winner. Because really, that makes an organization I support the real winners.

* * *

Finally, here’s an update on the Redheads’ Picnic, an event that won’t cost you anything except a possible sunburn.

Event organizer Sylvia Scott Wortley has got the whole thing planned out. Here’s her update:

"The place will be Assiniboine Park Terrace 55, Sunday, June 28 three to five," she wrote. "The redheads can meet on the terrace (which seats 160, so we shouldn’t run out of room). Terrace 55 can serve lemonade or iced tea for $3 a glass with the option of ordering other small items such as tea sandwiches.

"We’ll call it ‘Lemonade in the Shade’. We will reserve the option of inviting guests who don’t have one thread of red hair but they must sit in the sun, so that the true redheads can have the shade."

I’ll be there, wearing a hat and sunglasses and coated in SPF 50. Feel free to join us, fellow gingers.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca