Friday, November 1, 2013

“Walk a Mile In Her Shoes”

Posted by Anonymous

Good morning everyone! Happy Friday!

clip_image001

Last Friday I hung out with these sweet chicks!

clip_image002

Tonight I get to hang out with this sweet kids!

clip_image004

We have talked a lot on this blog about some of our race experiences. We all run these races for a reason and sometimes it is very personal. I always enjoy reading other people’s recaps on a new experience to them and what it meant to them. Today, I thought I would talk about someone else’s experience and give them a chance to talk about it as well.

Each year, an ever-increasing number of men, women and their families are joining the award –winning Walk a Mile in Her Shoes®: The International Men's March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault & Gender Violence. A Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® Event is a playful opportunity for men to raise awareness in their community about the serious causes, effects and remediations to sexualized violence.

There is an old saying: "You can't really understand another person's experience until you've walked a mile in their shoes." Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® asks men to literally walk one mile in women's high-heeled shoes. It's not easy walking in these shoes, but it's fun and it gets the community to talk about something that's really difficult to talk about: gender relations and sexual violence. (This is taken from the official website of “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes”)

The Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event was started back in 2001 and started out with a small group of men. Since then it has grown to become a world-wide event with thousands of men participating. A couple weeks ago, on October 19, 2013, there was an event held in St. Catharines, Ontario (2 hours from us).

A group of men at my work decided to participate in the event and raise some money. Dale Sett led the team so, I asked him to give me a brief summary on the experience, and what it meant to him.

clip_image006
The Shoes He Wore

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes (our team), started on Thursday October 3rd (6-weeks later than any other teams), when one of my employees came to me with the idea of putting in a team for this. I had really never thought of it, until it was mentioned, then I explained to him, that this hits home, as my kid sister went through this some 15 years ago with her first husband. From there we took the ball and ran with it. Over my 25 years in the business I am in and lacrosse, it wasn’t hard to see my goal of $500 would be met. In actuality, I had raised a $1000 in the first 24 hours! When all was said and done, our company was mentioned as the team that came out of nowhere. We only had 7 members, averaging a thousand dollars each. We ended up collecting $7000, and placed 3rd in the team category, along with a 3rd in the personal category.

The walk itself, was pretty amazing (I have a new respect for ladies when they dress to the nines with high heels, OMG how do they do it!). I carried my 3 year old grandson on the walk, and over 200 men paraded around a very full Pen Centre (local mall). The course was routed to take us by each and every store. There were so many “Thank you’s” from ladies, it was unbelievable. My only issue was, why did I not get involved sooner, especially with my family past. This ended up being a very fulfilling endeavor, and we are already planning for next year and giving TD Canada Trust and Meridian a run for their money, they had 53 and 28 members respectively in the walk, we had 7.”

clip_image008
He survived and could still pull his pant leg up to show off his shoes

I love hearing stories from people and I am always so touched on what motivates them to participate in an event. Thanks Dale for sharing with us! What a great cause to raise money for!

Another event that is starting today (Nov. 1) is the #thirtyin30 challenge #runvember. You may have heard about it! We are hosting this challenge with this lovely lady . In case you haven’t heard about it, it’s simple! Run 30 miles in 30 days! Our goal is to get people out there and try out the sport of running! You may see why we love it so much! Take pictures and post on IG, hashtagging #thirtyin30 and #runvember so we can check out all the participants! We are also using @challengeloop to connect and check in. Hope to see you all!

clip_image010

What are your Friday night plans?

Anyone racing this weekend? If so, what is the name of the event so we can check it out!

10 comments:

  1. Awesome job Dale. It's nice to hear other's stories especially when it hits close to home

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great cause to walk for - I had never heard of that but it is amazing!!! Thanks for sharing!
    Enjoy the kiddos tonight!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Kim! Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those stories, like never make me shed a tear or two

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mike needs to 300 in 30 days to keep him challenged! #Beast
    No races for me, still nursing hammie.
    Weekend plans.. unknown!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think he is already done 300 for the month. Take care of that hammie!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Does your site have a contact page? I'm having trouble locating it but, I'd like to
    shoot you an e-mail. I've got some suggestions for your blog you might be interested in hearing.
    Either way, great blog and I look forward to seeing it improve over time.


    Also visit my webpage: click here - -

    ReplyDelete
  8. I got this site from my buddy who informed me on the
    topic of this web page and now this time I am browsing
    this website and reading very informative content here.

    Here is my web blog - Lloyd Irvin after school program

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great article. I will be going through many of these issues as well..


    Here is my page; windsongbreastcare.com (windsongbreastcare.com)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good day! This post couldn't be written any better!

    Reading this post reminds me of my good old room mate!
    He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him.
    Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thanks for
    sharing!

    my website ... after effects Particles download

    ReplyDelete