A group of friends are taking a canoe from Craigleith to Thornbury, but they're doing it on land.
On Oct. 17, the group will be portaging a canoe 13.7 km along the Georgian Trail from Craigleith Ski Club to Bayview Park in Thornbury in solidarity with a camp friend who is living with multiple sclerosis.
The distance is specific because it matches the kilometres at Le Grand Portage, the trail from Pigeon River to the northern shore of Lake Superior.
The friends portaging together are former campers at Taylor Statten Camps and have a mutual friend in Felix Jasmin, who has inspired the canoe-bearing fundraising adventure.
Jasmin is a young father living in Montreal, and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) two years ago. MS is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system.
Last year Jasmin started a fundraising campaign based on a single day of activity where friends from around the globe ran/walked/biked 13.7km, the same distance that many of the camp participants would have done on a canoe trip with the Taylor Statten Camps many years ago.
This year Felix decided to up the ante and portage a canoe from Toronto to Montreal. He and 40 different teams will carry the canoe 700 km together.
Approximately 70,000 Canadians are living with the disease and about 12 Canadians are diagnosed with the disease every day.
To help raise money for research, you can donate to the local crew online here or through ‘Le Grand Portage’ homepage directly.
The portage team departs Craigleith Ski Club on Oct. 17 at 10:30 a.m.
You can read more about Felix’s story and journey here: https://legrandportage.ca/home.
