The BAPS Charities Walk in Toronto, Canada, took place on July 10, 2016, bringing together over 1,000 participants who eagerly walked a combined 10,000 km benefiting the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is one of the top five cancer research centres in the world. The BAPS Charities Walk will support the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation’s Billion Dollar Campaign for Personalized Cancer Care, a multi-faceted, integrated approach towards finding the right treatment, for the right patient, at the right time.
Following breakfast, the Walk event began with energetic warm-up exercises and opening speeches by sponsors and special guests. Participants ages of 4 and 80 then joined together to walk in support of advancing cancer research and treatment. Jay Shah, four years-old, is among the youngest fund-raisers for the Walk. Jay and his father went door to door in his neighbourhood and collected over $1000 for the hospital.
Held in seven cities across Canada, and at over 50 locations throughout North America, the annual Walk brings together more than 17,000 people in support of national and local causes. This year, the BAPS Charities Walk also focused on environmental protection efforts. Many North American Walks supported the Nature Conservancy’s goal to plant and restore 1.6 million acres of land by planting one billion trees by 2025 through the Plant a Billion Trees initiative.
BAPS Charities engages volunteers in the service of local communities across five areas: health, education, humanitarian aid, community empowerment and environmental initiatives. A collective spirit of voluntarism enables BAPS Charities to serve cities and suburbs across North America. In addition to annual walkathons, BAPS Charities hosts a variety of programs to support healthy living and education initiatives such as health fairs, bone marrow and blood drives, and disaster relief operations.
In Canada, BAPS Charities contributes support to local and national organizations including the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Alberta, Sick Kids Foundation in Toronto, The Scarborough Hospital Foundation and the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Support of this work expands charitable efforts across Canadian communities, providing greater opportunities for individuals to serve each other in serving society.
