Making Strides Together

Written By Thea Prescod and Richard Bechard

Over the last 11 years, many people have participated in Sanctuary’s annual 5k fundraiser, but Richard Bechard is one of a very few people who’s been at every one.

In 2009, as Sanctuary hosted our first fundraising walk (then called the “5K Walk for Poverty + Justice”), Richard thought it sounded like an interesting idea. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to walk too far, but he wanted to help out his community.

Richard had been hanging out around Sanctuary for years, and was an established part of our drama troupe, the Screaming Monkeys.

Instead of walking, he volunteered on the day of the walk, giving out t-shirts. Richard enjoyed helping out that way, and kept doing over the years, as well as seeking out other ways to be helpful. One of his favourite memories is of the time he got to use his actor’s voice to get the room to be quiet for announcements. “After I bellowed ‘Nada has an announcement, everyone listen!’ you could have heard a pin drop.”

In 2015, Richard decided to challenge himself to do the walk. That year, it was from Sanctuary to the Evergreen Brickworks. He walked with Thea and some others, and they took breaks along the way, but he made it. And the Brickworks was a beautiful location to finish in. That was also the first year that Sanctuary had a matching donor, and Richard donated some of his own money to ensure we reached our goal of $30 000. He was so proud to be part of us meeting our goal, “If we could do that, we can do anything, once we do it together.”

And that togetherness is the main the value of Sanctuary for Richard.

We’re family-oriented. Everyone here is family in one sense or another. It doesn’t matter who raises the most money. It all goes into one pot and helps all of us together.

Thanks Richard for your commitment to us and our annual run/walk/roll! Even though we’ll be walking apart, we’re all still doing this together.

You can join Richard, Thea, and the whole Sanctuary crew at this year’s Making Strides for Sanctuary run/walk/roll! Visit tinyurl.com/sancstrides20 to sign-up, donate, and learn more!