It was a sea of red at Thomson Park Friday

It was a sea of red at Thomson Park Friday as students from all four school boards helped kick off the RunWalk4Patrick Family Fest weekend by celebrating the 4th annual Partici-Patrick program's 'Day of Champions'.

For the past 10 weeks more than 2000 elementary students from grades 3 to 8 in the region have been have been working on completing the Partici-Patrick program, a marathon activity that is focused education program that addresses physical fitness, character development and self-esteem while teaching the students about HIV and AIDS.

The students have been racking their kilometers during school hours up to today (Friday) where they ran the final 2.2 kilometers of the race at Thompson Park.

Partici-Patrick is a project created by the Patrick4Life Foundation, a foundation dedicated to AIDS Awareness and education in memory of North Bay teen Patrick Fortin, who was diagnosed HIV positive at age 7 after he was infected by tainted blood. He lost his courageous battle.

Area dignitaries joined the Fortin Family and Minister of Health Deb Mathews in applauding the children as they crossed the finish. Mathews said the event is extraordinary and she was honoured to have been invited to participate.









The 5th Annual Run/walk4Patrick takes place at Lee Park on Sunday. For times and registration information go to www.runwalk4patrick.org.

Every 8 seconds someone in the world dies from AIDS.