News - September, 2006
24-Hour Stair Climbing Marathon?
Local Non-Profit Steps Up to Fight Cancer
Step Up for the Cure is a Montreal-based non-profit that will hold its second annual stair climbing marathon next weekend in an effort to raise funds for the Cancer Research Society. The event will take place at Molson Stadium, September 9th and 10th, 2006. While the stadium is normally host to University of McGill football games, its bleachers will become the center of attention, allowing Step Up's participants to climb stairs until they drop.
Last year, participants managed to climb 789,184 stairs, a total of 301,136 vertical meters. For those who don't like metric, that's around 187 vertical miles, and over 20 times the height of Mt. Everest. Quite the feat!
This is not your average fundraiser. The event happens to be a grueling test of will and endurance on all participants. "The event certainly isn't easy" said Daniel Fischer, event organizer and promoter. "But it wasn't designed to be, either. Fighting cancer is one of the toughest battles anyone can endure. Seeing others put themselves though our 24-hour marathon goes to show how strong the determination is to find a cure for this devastating disease."
In Canada, someone is diagnosed with cancer every 4 minutes. The idea behind Step Up for the Cure is that each participant runs a set of stairs every 4 minutes, totaling 15 sets an hour. If you sign up as a team, the 15 sets can be divided among team members. Each participant is encouraged to raise a minimum of $240 for the cause.
While some participants take the event to the extreme, Fischer says that anyone is welcome to take part, even if it's just for an afternoon to help out and run some stairs. "While we hope to have a large number of teams turn out for the full-blown marathon, we encourage anyone to come down and help us reach our goal of one million stairs" said Fischer.
The event has been successful in obtaining sponsorships from a variety of local companies. LogoBee was able to come up with a new logo design concept for the event, and Fischer had enough graphics expertise to translate the logo into French himself. Other sponsors include Caisse d'Économie des Pompiers, Cavalli Restaurant, Fairmount Bagel, Globe Electric Company, Hype Energy Drink, Lulu Lemon, Point Zero, San Benedetto, Steve's Music Store, Tim Hortons, Via Rail Canada and notably McGill University Athletics for providing the venue.
About Step Up for the Cure :
Courageous inspired individuals, challenging physical limits, through night and day, to raise money and awareness for cancer research. This is the essence of Step Up for the Cure. It is a 24-hour stair climbing marathon with the goal of running vertical sets for each Canadian battling this disease.