Can it get any better in our city than what you see in this picture? I think not.
This program is phenomenal. Having over 700 kids from across Ontario land in Guelph for their final 5kms run is important to our community but even more important to the kids who have trained for over 32 weeks to become the champions they are!
Canadian Olympic marathon runner Silvia Ruegger (see below) is a part of the program as the National Running & Reading Club Director and has pretty much one of the biggest hearts for children I’ve ever seen. The Start2Finish Founder & Executive Director is Brian Warren, who founded the program and in my opion was born for this program! One of the best motivators around!
Many thanks to the sponsors and donors of this event and to the UofG for their facilities to make it happen!
I have known about the running & reading program in Guelph for many years. Here’s some more info:
Running & Reading Club
The Running & Reading Club runs at Willow Road School in Guelph on Tuesday afternoons and a second one that was just started this past school year at Brant Avenue Public School. They’re always looking for new volunteers. You do not have to be good at running, or athletic, in order to be of help. You just need to have a heart for these kids and believe in the mission of this program. We have a number of special needs kids that require extra attention, and often we do not have enough volunteers to give them the care we would like to. We are also, in particular, looking for a mature person or couple who love/s kids and could be of assistance in driving university student volunteers from campus to Willow School (and back again) and could help share the task of picking up snacks for the program etc. If you are interested in finding out more about these opportunities, please contact Director of Community & Volunteer Relations, Michelle Wray, at (905) 319-1885 ext. 206 or michelle.wray@start2finishonline.org.
Giving the kids from Brant Ave School a pep talk before the race! They were great! 