By Nicole Ferrier
The 5th Annual JLB Memorial Run was a great success! It was my first year attending and I was in awe of all the wonderful people that came out to run, walk and cheer on the participants. Ross Elliot was such an inspiration to me as he walked in honour of his wife Fran, raising a large amount of money for the BC Cancer Society.
It’s always great to see community participation and the run was no exception. I watched with tears in my eyes while people crossed the finish line in honour of family and friends who battled cancer. Having lost some very special people to cancer myself, this was an amazing event to be a part of! There are so many people to thank and I hope that I won’t forget anyone.
First of all: The Boltz family, Stephanie, John, Melody, Chris and Jessica as well as their families and the whole extended Boltz family—thank you for organizing everything and setting up the routes for the run as well as doing the times at the finish line! To all of the volunteers that helped to set up, take down and man the water stations.
To Don Mallach and his crew for traffic control and ensuring the safety of the participants.
To Kerstin Kleinhempel, CGA, for supplying the water and Gatorade at the finish line.
To Vaagen Fibre Canada for their donation towards the cost of the dinner hosted by the library.
To the Boltz Hereford Ranch for donating the beef for the spaghetti dinner.
To the Village of Midway and the trails committee for providing a beautiful place to host our event.
To Steve Stewart and everyone at Kettle River Days for sharing the day with us.
To the Running Room in Kelowna for providing the race bibs.
To the Kelowna Running Club for providing the timing equipment and finish line flags.
And to the members of the Midway Public Library board for cooking and serving dinner on Friday and for serving lunch on Saturday.
I know this run is a lot of work and I am looking forward to the coming years, watching it grow even more. Thank you to each and every participant, from our little two-year-old runner all the way up to our 92-year-old runner.
You made the 5th annual JLB Memorial Run a HUGE success!
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In other news, starting Sept. 1, the library will now be open the same days and times as the Boundary Pharmacy, Tuesday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. We will no longer be open on Saturdays. Come in and check out our ongoing book sale and learn about our Adopt a Book program.