Life stories series: The Story of Hope and Love | Kitchener-Waterloo

This month’s Story is an incredibly difficult one for me. If you’ve been following me on Facebook you might’ve seen an update I did a few weeks ago, saying that I volunteered at my local Walk for ALS (ALS Ontario link here). For those of you who don’t know what ALS is, please read the wiki page here. It is a disease characterized by, well.. not such good things. Hopelessness, for one, since there is no treatment or cure. And in the majority of the cases doctors have no idea what causes it. My dear stepdad was diagnosed with ALS last year. It’s been an incredibly difficult time because we live on different continents and I’m unable to help out in any way. Which led me to volunteer my services to the walk.

I have to confess that I’d been feeling really down about everything leading up to the walk. But then the walk happened. And I got to photograph all these amazing teams, some of which drove up to an hour and a half just to do the 5km walk, in the pouring rain, for their loved ones (or in memory of a loved one). The day was grey and rainy but that didn’t dampen the spirit there one bit. Everybody was enthusiastic about the walk and the money they were raising to help those living with ALS in our community. And so many people volunteered their time and talents to ensure a successful walk. It was an amazing experience and I’m so glad that I got to be a part of it.

The walk kicked off with a minute of celebration, (instead of a minute of silence) in honour of the lives lived by those who are no longer with us because of ALS. And then the start line ribbon was cut by George and Tara from Chyme FM’s morning show, and off the walkers went.

The two largest teams (aren’t they AWESOME?!)

If I could choose one picture to sum up the day it would be this one. Simple, yes. The walk and the people there were like the bright purple balloon against the cloudy sky – spreading happiness and hope and love in the face of a gloomy and hopeless disease.

What is it that these life stories are about, you might ask?

Ever see a photographer who starts out with a 365 day project, or even a 52 week project and never finishes? Yeah, me too. Well, I recently joined a group of a few other busy photographers who decided to commit to a 12 month project! If we fail this, we’ll be taking donations for a time management seminar. We’re calling the series “The Story of ________” and we’ll each be filling in our own blanks. At the end of this post is a link to another photographer who participated and she’ll be linking to someone else. It’s a whole big circle of stories in pictures. Click through and enjoy!

Next up in the circle is the very talented Anelle Richardson. Be sure to check out her Story for the month!