The Multiple Myeloma March:
Ten Years of Community Building
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Aldo Del Col, Co-founder & Chairman,
Myeloma Canada
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Back in late summer 2009, Maryse Bouchard, a myeloma patient and her friend Sylvie-Chantale Duquette, approached me to help organize a fundraising walk in Montreal, a first for Myeloma Canada. Myeloma Canada was still a very small organization at the time with no staff or fundraising expertise, so my initial reaction was understandably a cautious one. But despite my initial reticence, Maryse and Sylvie-Chantale persisted and eventually convinced me to get on board. With just a little over two months to prepare, there was no time to waste. From securing the location, to getting the word out, to planning the logistics, there was much to be done. The event was named the Multiple Myeloma March and a logo was created.
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On the day of the event, we were feeling anxious: How many people would show up? Would the weather cooperate? How much would we raise? As it turns out, there was no reason to worry.
Despite our short time for planning, over 100 people showed up and over $30,000 was raised! As it became clear that the community was supportive of making this an annual event, planning for the second edition of the March began early and an ambitious target of $100,000 was set. The second edition allowed us to raise $147,000 thanks to hundreds of participants and supporters. It was at that point that I realized that the event was much more than a fundraiser - it was an opportunity to raise awareness for myeloma and bring the community together. I reflected on how alone I had felt when I was first diagnosed and how I now felt overwhelmed with a sense of belonging and camaraderie with other patients, their family and friends. It then dawned on me that the Multiple Myeloma March presented a unique opportunity to build a community from coast-to-coast, bringing people together under a common goal of making myeloma matter.
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Ten years later, the Multiple Myeloma March has grown into a major annual event, with thousands of volunteers, supporters and participants generating an unprecedented level of myeloma awareness and kinship from coast to coast. From the single March in Montreal in 2009, the event has now grown to 22 cities across Canada:
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- Vancouver Island, BC
- Prince George, BC
- Vancouver, BC
- Kelowna, BC
- Enderby, BC
- Kamloops, BC
- Airdrie, AB
- Melville, SK
- Winnipeg, MB
- Windsor/Essex County, ON
- Kitchener/Waterloo, ON
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- Hamilton, ON
- Mississauga, ON
- Thunder Bay, ON
- Sault Ste. Marie, ON
- Oshawa, ON
- Ottawa-Gatineau,ON (Steps to a Cure!)
- Montreal, QC
- Quebec City, QC
- Saint John, NB
- Halifax, NS
- St John’s, NL
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If you wish to organize a Multiple Myeloma March in your area or would like more information on how to do so, please feel free to contact us at
contact@myeloma.ca
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To celebrate the March’s 10
th
anniversary, note that our Full Bloom campaign will kick off this month. As the floral emblem for Myeloma Canada, the Red Gerber Daisy is a symbol of our blossoming community that you have helped cultivate from our grassroots. As a thank you for your continued participation and support in the 2018 Multiple Myeloma March, you will receive a complimentary gift of colourful Gerber Daisy seeds in the mail from Myeloma Canada, as a symbol of our growing community. Learn more on how to participate in the Full Bloom campaign, by visiting the
Full Bloom kick-off article
in this newsletter.
I am deeply grateful to the local March leaders, coordinators, participants, and donors who through their tireless grassroots efforts have made a tremendously meaningful impact on the lives of people impacted by myeloma, both locally and nationally. By working together, we have shown how we can make myeloma matter!
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Aldo Del Col
Co-founder & Chairman
Myeloma Canada
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