Campbell River's Sean Cleaver, 10, and 14-year-old Jade McNeal have earned the right to put their feet up for a while.
The Campbell River kids were honoured on the weekend for being the first male and female youths to finish the gruelling 63.5 krn Great Walk from Gold River to Tahsis Saturday. McNeal finished in 10 hours, 29 minutes, and Cleaver came in at 16 hours, 59 minutes.
The 23rd annual event attracted record numbers of runners and walkers.
Of the 1,000 people who registered, 921 showed up and 744 finished the gruelling trek.
"It became so hot in the afternoon," said organiser Betty Ganyo of the Tahsis Lions. "Those poor walkers."
The walkers raised a grand total of $133,330 at least (all the pledge money isn't in yet) for more than 100 different charities. The Canadian Cancer Society was the biggest winner of the day with pledges totalling $13,665. The walkers raised $95,000 last year and we thought that was pretty good," Ganyo said. "This
was our biggest year ever."
This year, a commemorative Great Walk water bottled filled with Gold River water was given to every registrant, which turned out to be a good thing because of the heat, Ganyo said.
The first person in was Steven Royer of Courtenay, at four hours and 55 minutes. He was followed by Rob Grant of Victoria at five hours and 38 minutes.
The oldest woman was Mary VanToor, 73, of Nanaimo and the oldest man was John E. Zuiker of Surrey. Robert Francis of Victoria wasthe last walker to finish, at 17 hours and 53 minutes. The average completion time was 11 hours and 59 minutes.
Ganyo said the event was made possible, as usual, by dozens of volunteers, who worked at checkpoints, at the starting line, at the finish line, making sandwiches and volunteering at the pool afterwards. "The volunteers were fantastic, they came from Gold River, Tahsis, even as far away as Campbell River," she said. "It was great!"
Published in the Campbell River Courier-Islander, June 6, 2000
Reprinted with permission
