Manitouwadge Fun Run 2012

Written by admin on 06 June 2012

On the right, a group of Manitouwadge's brave Volunteer Firefighters walked the course in FULL gear not at all detered by the 19oC temps! Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

The Foucault-Clark Family, with their youngest daughters, ready to head out on their 'Fun Run'. Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

MANITOUWADGE, ON – Unlike in 2011 when Manitouwadge Fun Run participants had to brave drizzling rain and mosquitoes, the 2012 Manitouwadge Fun Run for Heart yesterday had plenty of cooperation from Mother Nature as participants enjoyed the 1km walk under sunny skies and little or no pesky mosquitoes.

Nearly 200 people signed in as official participants, included in these were students from each of the four local schools who signed in to show their school spirit and in the hopes their school would earn bragging rights as the one with the highest percentage of participation. Of the 196 ‘Fun Runners’ who walked or biked here is how they identified themselves (only students and staff from each school could sign in with their particular school, parents were asked to sign in as ‘general public’):

École Publique Franco-Manitou – 17 – 47% (↓26% from last year)
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School – 61 – 44% (↑12% from last year)
Manitouwadge Public School – 22 – 35% (↓18% from last year)
Manitouwadge High School – 8 – 7% (↑4% from last year)
General Public – 88 – ↑ more than DOUBLE last year’s number!
TOTAL community participation – 9.3% overall ↑ from last year, which had seen just 7.9% of the community involved. WAY TO MOVE MANITOUWADGE!

OLOL Teacher Clare Milks met up with plenty of her Jk and Sk friends along the route, here SK Student Emeraude says hello. Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

Along the route one of the hilghlights was definately a group of local volunteer firefighters who, as is their tradition, completed the course in full gear. This is done in an effort to familiarize kids and adults with seeing them in their oxygen masks and gear to ensure that should firefighters need to escort someone out of their home, perhaps in a smokey. dark or other low-visibility situation, kids in particular will not be frightened by seeing the firefighters in their somewhat intimidating gear. Their commitment was all the more impressive considering temperatures last night saw a high of nearly 20^oC!

Community Programmer, Shawna Patterson, who organized the event had giant ‘freezies’ for all those who completed the walk, a much appreciated treat on such a hot spring day. Patterson was pleased with the increase in participation by the community as a whole

“It’s nice to see overall participation increasing so significantly from year to year, Manitouwadge is on its way to becoming a healthier community as a whole and that’s good news for everyone!” said Patterson.

: On the right, a group of Manitouwadge’s brave Volunteer Firefighters walked the course in FULL gear not at all detered by the 19o temps! Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

: OLOL Teacher Clare Milks met up with plenty of her Jk and Sk friends along the route, here SK Student Emeraude says hello. Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com