The Skeena
For more than 20 years, B.C. law enforcement and emergency services workers have participated in an annual 850 km bike ride across the province to raise money for fighting cancer. But things will look a bit different for Cops for Cancer this year due to coronavirus.
“With the need to consider sensitivity to proper distancing, the ride is formatted in a relay style between each municipality,” the Northern View reported.
Here’s what that means for the Skeena portion of the ride.
“The local team of four cyclists from Prince Rupert will ride to Terrace in the first leg, the team from Terrace will complete the second leg, and so forth with the various community teams, right up to the finish line in Prince George,” the paper explains.
But that shouldn’t distract from the main goal of the fundraiser, which is to raise money for a cause that benefits all of us. “Everyone we know has been affected by cancer in some way – be it friends, family, or co-workers,” Supt. Ed Boettcher, operations officer for Surrey RCMP, said last year. “In the past 20 years, $45 million has been raised in B.C. alone through Cops for Cancer, making it the largest pediatric cancer fundraiser in the country.”
Lockdowns caused by coronavirus have made it much harder for riders like Prince Rupert’s Bob Killbery, a retired RCMP officer, to raise money. But it’s also made him more creative. He’s now trying to grab people’s attention with a brightly-coloured toilet.
“We want to flush away cancer and the toilet is a way to raise awareness and collect as much money as we can,” he said.
