Middle row: Karen Rye, Joyce Bridgman, Suzanne Vrana, Marie-France Juneau (with cheque in hand), Jackie St. Laurent, Gerry Senechal
Front row: Alan Orton, Sue Wiggins, Miguel Riano
A West Island running and walking group called the Rogue Runners presented a cheque for $665 to Marie-France Juneau during breakfast at Homestyle Restaurant in Beaconsfield earlier this month.
Juneau was representing NOVA, the west island health charitable organization that supports seniors struggling with tough health challenges.
We run a social centre for seniors with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other health challenges three days a week,” said Juneau. “For $20 a day, we provide entertainment, a hot meal, arts and crafts and other activities for them. We also have drivers to bring people to chemo and radiation treatments.”
Every year, the Rogue Runners collect change and hold events to raise money for an annual charity. They’ve donated to the Special Olympics, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Alzheimer’s Association and now, NOVA. Last Saturday’s donation was the third donation; they also donated $400 from a garage sale and $240 from another bucket collection earlier in 2014.
NOVA was suggested by Rogue Runner member Dawn Baxter, because the organization offered crucial assistance for her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s.
She lived in LaSalle, so all the services near her were French,” said Baxter. “She went to the NOVA Day centre at least once a week, but she never remembered from one week to the next. I’d tell her I’d go in with her and stay as long as she liked, but as soon as we got there, she would see the faces and the warm welcome and she’d tell me I could go. It was so important. When people get Alzheimer’s’ they lose their social life. Their friends are no longer comfortable with them, or they don’t remember them. NOVA was a life-saver.”
After her mother died, Baxter suggested that the Rogue Runners choose the charity for their 2014 donations. The other members of the group readily agreed.
Their 2015 charity is the On Rock Food Bank.
