Last month, the kids and I joined over 2,800 dedicated individuals in the fourth annual Great Camp Adventure Walk to benefit SickKids. The camp-themed walk, which took place on a gloriously sunny day, began at Main Camp at Fort York where participants enjoyed breakfast and partook in a warmup before beginning their journey on a picturesque walk throughout Toronto's most scenic and interesting neighbourhoods. The entire route measured 20 kilometres and, while I was aiming for 10 km, I told myself I would be perfectly happy if we made it to 5 km. What I had not anticipated was how much fun I would have and how desperately I wanted to complete all 20 km. While we didn't quite make it that far, we managed to find our way to the camp at the 15 km marker before hopping on the shuttle back to Main Camp.
Call me crazy but there's something about earning badges that is incredibly rewarding and extremely motivating. I wanted to get 'em all! But that wasn't the only fun part. At each camp along the route, we were greeted with enthusiastic volunteers who cheered us on. It was also great to tag along with Deborah and her son, whose company motivated my son to keep going as far as we did.
Along the way, there were plenty of snacks and drinks, as well as a variety of fun activities for the whole family, including play structures at the neighbourhood parks. Our first activity, aptly named "Messy Hands", had participants painting their hands and decorating a larger than life SickKids sign.
Other activities included shooting hoops at Camp Spirit of Hope, identifying local plant life, brushing up on jump rope skills, enjoying lunch at Camp Wilderness Wonders and working in teams to cross a finish line using giant bear feet.
We may have even spotted an incredibly large bear along the way, not to mention Big Foot.
I really like that the route lead us past The Hospital for Sick Children, which served as a nice reminder that we were walking on behalf of those who couldn't.
After hanging out at Camp Loopity Loop, we took a shuttle back to Main Camp where we grabbed some burgers, hotdogs, fries, freshly made ice cream cookie sandwiches and much more. We even noticed that some of our tweets appeared on the big screen at the main stage, which was really neat.
Finally, we made sure to try out some archery, make tie dye shirts, and snap a photo at the PixelBooths. By the time we left, we had spent nearly 12 hours participating in the Great Camp Adventure Walk and had so much fun, we barely noticed that we logged over 26,000 steps!
After all was said and down, I was extremely proud of my kids for dedicating their entire Saturday to participate in the event and even more so for surpassing our goal and fundraising nearly $700 for SickKids.
If you're interested in registering for the 2017 Canaccord Genuity Great Camp Adventure Walk, I recommend that you sign up before October 15, 2016 so that you can save on registration fees, which are as little as $10 for youth and $20 for adults. Participants will not only enjoy a day full of fun activities, you will also enjoy great meals and snacks along the way and receive an event t-shirt and badges to commemorate the special day.
and those giant bear feet! how fun!
Oh wow, sounds like so much fun and I love all the fun and activities along the way as well, and it's all for a great cause!!
It looks like fun and I love all the fun and activities along the way as well, and it's all for a good cause !!
Nicely done. That big foot bear looks like quite a bit of fun too!
It looks like it was a fun day!
What a wonderful cause to walk for.
Would love to do this next year. My daughter was in sick kids as a baby and I always find some way to give back.