The Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life fundraiser is passing the baton to a new event to help revitalize community excitement about supporting cancer research.
This year’s event on the North Shore will be getting people active and involved with the Daffodil Dash. Featuring a one-kilometre walk and five-km run, the event, being held April 24 at 8 a.m. at West Vancouver’s Ambleside Park, is hoping to capture more participants’ attention with a smaller format that packs just as much punch as the relay.
“There was definitely decline,” said Christina Bauzon, event development co-ordinator with the Canadian Cancer Society. “There was a decline in turnout, in participation level and volunteers as well.”
Bauzon says they wanted to pump some life into the event with a different form of community engagement to encourage participation and fundraising. Complete with a bright yellow mascot named Dash, the activities are hoped to encourage the same wacky enthusiasm that the relay was so well known for.
That sense of energy is what brought Rod Vafaei back in a more active role this year to help on the North Shore event planning committee. He participated in the Richmond Relay for Life last year and was inspired by the strong sense of community the Canadian Cancer Society creates for people struggling through the disease.
“I really enjoyed that event and I heard about an opportunity to help the committee this year for a North Shore (event), which is my own local community,” said Vafaei. “I knew that that kind of energy, that positivity, was something the North Shore community really embodied quite well, and that sense of close community ties.”
This is Bauzon’s first year organizing events for the North Shore arm of the Canadian Cancer Society. She previously worked in youth engagement. The planning committee, although small in size, has been getting the word out with public outreach in schools and within their individual communities.
“I have a fairly new committee that’s helping me really be on the ground,” she said. “They’re with me on the ground going out into the community, using their networks and just talking to people out on the street about the Daffodil Dash.”
In a reminder to the public about the annual canvassers, manager of annual giving, Paula Taylor, mentioned that the door-to-door collections will be going on for the month of April.
“Our volunteers will be easy to recognize – just look for the bright, yellow daffodil pin on their lapels. They will also be wearing Canadian Cancer Society lanyards to identify themselves,” said Taylor. “When our volunteers with their daffodil pins arrive on your doorstep, we hope people will be inspired to join the fight against cancer and give generously. The pin is a powerful symbol of hope that lets people in our community who are affected by cancer or who have lost someone to the disease know that they are not alone.”
With a ways to go before meeting their goal of $21,000, Vafaei and Bauzon are excited and hopeful to see a large show of community support for this new event. cancer.ca/daffodildash
