It was almost six years ago to the day that, then high school student Sinclaire Lovett, and a few of her friends organized a fun event in memory of her sister older Bronwyn .
Since that humble beginning, which was initially in support of the BC Children’s Hospital and what has now become the Wildstone Colours4Kids Run has grown to epic proportions.
“When we first started this I did not believe it would ever get this big, we were just a really small high school (Princess Margaret Secondary) team supported by our awesome admin who just believed in us,” said Sinclaire who came back from Victoria where she is going to school to be at Sunday’s event. “Just to see the number of people here today compared to our first year is is just so impressive and to be able to see the people at our first year event, the same people here today, is just amazing.
“My Sister Bronwyn loved colours, loved fun, loved being the sun so this is just the perfect event for her and I wish she could be here to see this, I know she would love this.”
Bronwyn, who attended the OSNS Child and Youth Developmen Centre for a number of years, passed away in 2012 at the age of 18 from a mitochondrial disease.
While the final figures won’t be tabulated until sometime Monday Manisha Willms, executive director for OSNS, beneficiaries of the event, was confident this year will once again be over the top.
“We had 700 registered online this morning which was the most ever and it seemed like there were another couple people registered this morning so just a fantastic turnout,” Willms, who was holding the finish line ribbon with Wildstone president Mark Melissen. “It was amazing standing in the back of the truck looking out on all those folks, we had some many people we did two stages this year.”
The size of the crowd necessitated the closure of a section of Riverside Drive to traffic as the runners passed through the various colour stages where they were showered in brightly coloured pastel powder.
Wildstone actually took over the major sponsorship and organization of the event four years ago when Sinclaire left for school.
READ MORE: Colours and kids go together at Okangan Sunday fundraiser
“It’s something you can do with the whole family and so in the spirit of OSNS being an organization that benefits and helps families, we’re super happy to be doing it,” said Melissen. “Love OSNS as an organization so anything we can do to help raise awareness and raise some money we’ll do it.”
READ MORE: Wildstone Colours4Kids tops $17,000 mark
Sinclaire also praised OSNS for its work along with Wildstone and the other sponsors.
“It’s really cool and I know that they are all doing this with all the love in their hearts for kids like my sister,” she said.
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Mark Brett | Reporter
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