Clout (L), Youth Ambassador, and Mayor Vic Fedeli thank all the people who attended the Patrick 4 Life AIDS Awareness Run. Over 600 participants took part.
Clout (L), Youth Ambassador, and Mayor Vic Fedeli thank all the people who attended the Patrick 4 Life AIDS Awareness Run. Over 600 participants took part.The sun was shining literally and metaphorically on the Second Annual Patrik4life Run/Walk Sunday, as over six hundred runners broke a sweat to raise awareness about AIDS.
Patrick 4 Life AIDS Awareness and Education is a not for profit organization dedicated to educating youth about HIV/AIDS.
“Just look at this…,” Christian Fortin, Event organizer and Patrick’s father said while motioning with his arm towards the mass of people who attended the event at Lee Park.
“I think it’s a great day and I am extremely happy with the turn out. Last year when we started this if we had a hundred and fifty runners, I would have been totally happy.”
This run came only a day after two thousand students in Grades 4 to 8 from all four area school boards donned red Partici-Patrick tee shirts and took part in a marathon. The event that took place on Friday was the finale of a two-month program that taught students about staying fit and how to avoid contracting and spreading AIDS.
“It just gave me chills to see all those kids in a big sea of red. They were all chanting ‘zero AIDS, zero AIDS’. It was incredible,” Maureen Clout, Partici-Patrick Project Manager, said.
Christine Fortin, Patrick’s mom, was very happy to see so much support from the community.
“It looks like a big party and it definitely is a family fest,” Fortin said about all the people mingling about Lee Park.
“The exciting thing is watching people find their names up on the results. People are checking for their kids as well, so it really has a family atmosphere. It’s like a big picnic,” she added.
Fortin explained she thinks all this is happening because the people really want it and she says she’s not sure how easy it is to always go back to Patrick, but it’s nice to have a face for the organization.
“I think people identify with it on so many levels,” she says about her son being the face for the AIDS awareness program.
“When we go into the schools and show the four minute multi-media that’s on the website it gets the teachers emotional, because they think of their kids. The teenage girls get emotional because he was so hansom when he was a teenager,” Fortin said.
The Patrick4Life AIDS Awareness and Education Organization was founded in memory of North Bay teen Patrick Fortin. Fortin who was diagnosed HIV positive at age 7 due to tainted blood. He lost his courageous battle five years ago.
Mayor Vic Fedeli, Co-Chair of Patrick 4 Life, thinks that this event is just the start of something that could grow even bigger.
“It’s a huge eye opener and it’s very educational. As word spreads it will just get better and better,” Fedeli said.
For more about Patrick 4 Life visit
www.patrick4life.org.
