We Miss So Many of You!
Volunteers are the backbone of the BRIGHT Run. It simply would not happen without them. Our volunteers, along with our community partners, make it possible for every dollar raised by BRIGHT participants to go right to local breast cancer research.
The pandemic pivot to virtual has had a huge impact on our regular stable of volunteers. Without the in-person event, some 250 volunteers are adrift for the second year in a row.
BRIGHT Run Volunteer Coordinator Aryn Sousa-Moreton says she and her subcommittee members have missed the dedicated volunteers who participate each year.
“We truly can’t wait until we can safely return to an in-person event in 2022,” Aryn said. “I have no doubt our BRIGHT volunteers will come back and support us again as many of them have been doing for years.”
Through the pandemic, a smallish team of volunteers have been working hard behind the scenes to make virtual BRIGHT 2021 a success.
It starts, of course, with our volunteer BRIGHT executive committee, headed by Event Chair Nancy McMillan. The 12-member committee meets via Zoom each month.
It’s quite the full screen, with Nancy, Mark Levine, Steve Ewoniak, Lee Prokaska, Lisa Rudd-Scott, Kathie Ward, David Balsdon, Michele Mandryk, Bindi Dhesy, Michele Cardoso, Aryn Sousa-Moreton and Vanessa Sheppard!
Several executive members chair sub-committees, which also meet virtually at least once a month. Those subcommittees rely on volunteers too.
The Advertising, Marketing and Communications committee, for example, is lucky to have photographer Rick Harris and design/social media guru Marin Hudson on its team.
The Teams and Registration committee benefits greatly from the involvement of Michelle Allan, Sandy Murphy, Amber Ripa, Kim Smith and Donna Stampone, with Mark Calcagni jumping into action when needed.
The Community Partners committee has increased its scope through the participation of Roma Dhamanaskar and the Event Day committee has counted on the help of Helen Bachura, Jessie Turcott, Aiden Walker and the members of Wave Warriors dragon boat team to get ready for T-shirt pickup day.
Nancy calls our BRIGHT Run volunteers “the life blood of BRIGHT.”
“From our event day students to our tenured executive, these people make the magic happen, year after year,” she said. “BRIGHT would not happen without our blue shirts!”
We’re all hoping to be back at the Dundas Valley Conservation Area for BRIGHT 2022 and when that happens, we will be so happy to see all of our wonderful, BRIGHT volunteers again! We miss you!
