Racers embark on the 5km run at the Run for Rose fundraiser on Saturday morning. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Racing for a cause

First annual Run for Rose fundraiser a massive success

May 25, 2024 | 4:46 PM

The parking lot of the Rose Garden Hospice was packed on Saturday morning with hundreds of people coming out for the first annual Run for Rose race, and it was all for a good cause.

The fundraiser quickly reached its limit of 250 participants where they could race in either a 2km family or individual walk/run, a 5km run, or 10 km run.

The event was to help raise funds to transform the Hospice’s outdoor spaces, where the home’s Community Engagement and Fundraising Coordinator Ian Dickson said the response from the community has been overwhelming.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “This started off as an idea a few months back and it’s been a lot of help and a lot of people, both volunteers and corporate sponsorships – local businesses really stepped up and we had a goal to reach, and we’ve hit that financially so we’re able to start on the development of our outdoor spaces.”

He added that the Rotary Club of Prince Albert donated a whopping $50,000 and that the money will pave the way for an extension of the Rotary Trail, connecting it with the future garden area of the Hospice.

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“On the whole north end of the building, it’s still just farmer field,” he explained. “We’re going to develop that outdoor space and thanks to a very generous contribution from the Rotary Club of Prince Albert, we’re going to connect that little garden area to the Rotary Trail, so it’s going to be a rose garden with benches, picnic tables – an area for solace, an area for reflection, an area for families to gather and spend time together when they’re here at the Hospice.”

With the fantastic turnout and response from the community, Dickson believes that the Run for Rose will only get bigger and better in the coming years.

“This will become an annual event and we are going to be raising those numbers [of participants],” he said. “We wanted to put our toe in the water so to speak this year to see how things would go and making sure that we weren’t biting off more than we could chew logistically. We know what we’re doing now and next year is going to be a lot easier.”

The event also featured a dedicated Kids Zone, barbecue, and live music from The Project.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com