The Focus for a Cure team under Captain Michelle Wilson will soon be on the track for the 12 Hour Relay for Life in the Canadian Cancer fundraiser coming up June 21 at the Community Rec Centre. Her fellow teammates are members of Chestermere’s Focus Taekwon-Do Club.
To boost their pledges the team decided to host a self-defense course at their martial arts club. For five dollars anyone could join this special class and learn how to kick, jab, bite, flip, pull and take control from a potentially threatening perpetrator. All proceeds were then added to the teams’ pledges for their quest in completing the 12 hour overnight relay.
Aimee Maund, Owner and Head Instructor of the Focus Taekwon -Do club, and relay team member as well, was very pleased with the turnout and overall support from the club. Large and small folk alike were making it look simple to use a few tricks and well planned maneuvers to get out of life threating situations. There was a great turnout with over 45 participants in the room and $375 added to the team’s pledges.
Maund and Wilson previously participated with friends in the Strathmore Relay for Life last year and decided this year to go local through their own community and taekwon do club. Four families comprise the team along with the Chestermere born and raised Maund, and fellow club member Connie Graham.
Cancer has come close to home in the Wilson family with the loss of husband Gary’s mother at a young age of 55 and living through Wilson’s father’s cancer treatment and subsequent remission. Her young sons Lewis and Riley never had the chance to meet their grandmother. In Wilson’s website bio she refers to her son’s paternal grandmother as their “ANGEL “grandmother forever watching over them.
These circumstances gave her reason to pause and put life in perspective. She said it makes you think about things. It was the first opportunity to teach her young boys how to give back.
Also joining the team of 13 are fellow club members Jodee and Sean Bilinski and their two daughters Isabelle and Emily. It is their hope to keep the momentum going for finding a cure for cancer while supporting their friends.
Rounding up the team are Christa and DJ Giles, and their sons Jenner and Lewis. Christa previously participated in a Walk For Breast Cancer with her mother which was a 2 day circuit covering 60 kilometers through Calgary neighborhoods. She’s excited to participate in the largest cancer fund raiser of the year.
This family orientated club which occasionally gets together outside of taekwon-do through barbeques and camping has also raised funds through their raffle. The kids were proud to do their part by asking friends and family, the amount given not as important as the act itself.
The Relay for Life which runs from 7 at night to 7 in the morning promises to be eventful with a supper, a luminary ceremony to honor friends and family lost to cancer, and of course the relay which will have at least one team member walking at all times around the lap throughout the 12 hours.
The Focus For A Cure Team will be joined by 8 other teams as they rally together for this very important cause in a special night of fun, fellowship and remembrance.
