The MAUD (Make a Unique Donation) Run was held in Lowertown on Saturday at the Summerland Racquets Club.
Participants had the option of running a one kilometre, three kilometre or five kilometre distance.
Race entry was by pledging to donate blood, time or a small amount of cash to Canadian Blood Services, which was one of the event sponsors.
Representatives were set up on site to offer information and to answer questions.
The run was envisioned by and held in memory of Ellen Maud Lloyd, a former citizen of Summerland, who passed away last year after battling leukemia.
Lloyd was well known in Summerland for several different initiatives, including the Action Festival’s family run and the Man of Steel Triathlon.
“The concept behind this event was because she liked to do the runs,” said her son Warren Lloyd. “She wanted a run that people would really want to do, but in order to get into it you had to donate blood.”
He explained that during treatment for leukemia, his mother had received platelets and plasma, both of which are derived from blood.
This event would have been her way of expressing her gratitude to all the anonymous donors whose blood had sustained her, as well as raising the awareness as to how precious the gift of donated blood can be, thus encouraging people to give.
Lloyd worked with youth in the community and was instrumental in creating the Summerland Asset Development Initiative and for her work with the Summerland Penny Lane Charity Shops.
She also was awarded an Olympic ring for managing the Canadian Olympic Swim Team.
“For us that knew my mom and the people in Summerland who came to know and love her…we called her a jeweller,” said Warren Lloyd.
“She looked for diamonds in the rough. She had a tendency to champion causes and the underdog. She turned what a lot of people would have considered rough stones into precious stones.”
When Sylvia Mott, a Grade 12 student heard about Lloyd’s unfulfilled idea of the run, she and the Student Voice Committee of the Summerland Secondary School, decided to pick up where she had left off.
They worked together with Jim Lloyd, Ellen’s husband, to make Ellen’s vision of the run a reality.
As organizers of the run they obtained local sponsorship to help with the promotion, prizes, food and beverages and all other aspects involved with an event such as this.
“There were a lot of people who knew Ellen and knew about the great things she had done for this community, so we were very lucky in having so many people who were interested in helping us out,” said Mott.
It is the hope of all those involved that this new community event, the Maud Run, will become another Summerland tradition.
If you know a positive story about someone in our community, contact Carla McLeod at carlamcleod@shaw.ca or contact the Summerland Review newsroom at 250-494-5406.
