Complaints

Hi,

I have received a complaint or two recently that I have not been posting of late. For this, I must apologize (the lack of the posting, not the complaints obviously). I have no exciting excuses; I've just been busy being me. Sometimes that's more difficult than others. Recently, it's been difficult. I won't go into details; some of you will understand, others won't. Those of you who don't: trust me, you don't want to.

So, one of the complaints I received was regarding the lack of a post about the Easter Seals 24 Hour Relay. So here are my thoughts: it wasn't a bad time. The event took place at a new venue this year and it was downtown (as opposed to Etobicoke) so that was cool. I did not get a sunburn (for like the first time ever!), so that was also cool. The course was a fair amount shorter so I was walking about for less time, and others were running in shorter times. I actually enjoyed my dinner this year (it was penne pasta with a lovely red sauce). There were other differences as well, but the biggest difference was in the number of participants.

The first time I participated in this event was in either '99 or '00 (sorry, I can't remember exactly) and there were so many people at the park that we could barely all fit in the stands at Centennial Park in Etobicoke. There were at least a thousand people there at 9am on Saturday morning for the opening ceremonies. I don't know the exact numbers, but there had to be close to fifty teams of twenty people each. Over the years, that number has gotten smaller and smaller. This year, I would be surprised if there were thirty teams there. I doubt that there were three hundred people at the opening ceremonies and there were even fewer at the closing ceremonies.

So, why do we suppose that is? Well, for one thing, the date of the event was two weeks later this year. There were several different events happening downtown that weekend. Okay, there were three, but still. They were still happening downtown. There were dragon boat races at harbour front on the same day as the relay. The sort of people who are young and energetic and 'joiners' might have already committed to the dragon boat races. The last weekend in June is a prime wedding date. There was more than one person not on our team just for that reason alone. I'm not sure why they changed the date, but they did. However, the date is probably not the only reason people have stopped coming to the 24 hour relay.

I think it's gotten old. It's 14 or 15 years old and the market is now saturated with 'fun' fundraising events. This one may have been new and exciting when it started, but it's not anymore. The people who were around 'partying with a purpose' when it began are all growing up and they have kids who have things to do now. They probably can't commit a whole weekend to this kind of event anymore. For the past few years, the people on our team have been coming and going over the course of the event because they can't commit to the entire 24 hours, and many of them don't even have kids yet. Unfortunately, I think this event may have run its course and the Easter Seals people might have to come up with a different event soon to replace it. There are too many fundraisers and this one requires too much of a commitment from people. Unless they (the Easter Seals people) can tap into a whole new generation of partyers, this one is going to continue to decrease in size and scope and will soon not be worth the effort to stage.

As icing on the cake of the weekend, the team from Schulich/Osgoode cheated on their numbers of laps and got away with it. That of course takes all the fun out of the competition for those of us who do not cheat. Seriously folks, who cheats at a charity event?

All in all, it was fun, but I think its days are numbered.

Peace out peeps,
Lesle