Myra's Marathon comes to its final glorious finish line
Hearty congratulations to Myra Rodrigues for completing the final 21.1 kilometres in her journey walking a half marathon in each Canadian province and territory to raise funds for the library at the Canadian Institute for the Blind (CNIB).
Myra began her trek a year ago. On Sunday she crossed the finish line of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon with a gang of ardent supporters at her side and more cheerleaders shouting from the sidelines. Over 13 half marathons Myra has walked 274.3 kilometres – not including training walks! Myra’s commitment to seeing her goal of raising money for the CNIB Library – so that all may read – is inspirational.
Many of you may have read my posting on this blog about my trip last June with Myra to Mayo, Yukon where I was privileged to guide her on one of these 13 half marathons. The significance of Myra’s reason for walking really hit me that weekend. As her guide, I was prepared for all the challenges that face someone who can not see. The difficulties of navigating through airports, public washrooms, and along a race course were obvious. Well, sort of obvious, I learned a lot about how poorly public washrooms are designed for the visually challenged.
As we settled into our seats for our flight to Vancouver en route to Whitehorse, Myra pulled out a hefty “book” of white sheets. It was a copy of the Braille Courier – a compendium of news and magazine articles transcribed by the CNIB. Myra was reading an article that had been transcribed from the Walrus – coincidentally an article that I had read when it was published last March. It was an article about how Canadian universities won’t give failing grades to young people any more. It was controversial and it was thought-provoking. I passed it along to some power walkers whose university-age daughter I thought might find it interesting or possibly irritating!
The thing is I couldn’t just pass it along to Myra or anyone else who is severely visually impaired. I need the CNIB to be there.
As an avid reader, and some may say my reading habit has the qualities of an addict, discovering Myra reading an article that I had read three months earlier felt like a slap on the face that woke me to something that wasn’t as obvious as the travails of getting around as a blind person. Every day I read whatever is in front of me – the newspaper, magazines that come to the house, even cereal boxes. Every day reading adds to the richness of my life.
How does the CNIB find the resources to transcribe all the interesting material that is available to sighted readers into Braille and talking book? It’s a question that remains unanswered for me but I am grateful to Myra and her extraordinary commitment to walk these 13 half marathons over the past year. She has raised more than $60,000 to help them tackle this daunting task.
If you walk and you read, there’s still time to donate to Myra’s Marathon at www.cnib.ca/myrasmarathon .
Myra began her trek a year ago. On Sunday she crossed the finish line of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon with a gang of ardent supporters at her side and more cheerleaders shouting from the sidelines. Over 13 half marathons Myra has walked 274.3 kilometres – not including training walks! Myra’s commitment to seeing her goal of raising money for the CNIB Library – so that all may read – is inspirational.
Many of you may have read my posting on this blog about my trip last June with Myra to Mayo, Yukon where I was privileged to guide her on one of these 13 half marathons. The significance of Myra’s reason for walking really hit me that weekend. As her guide, I was prepared for all the challenges that face someone who can not see. The difficulties of navigating through airports, public washrooms, and along a race course were obvious. Well, sort of obvious, I learned a lot about how poorly public washrooms are designed for the visually challenged.
As we settled into our seats for our flight to Vancouver en route to Whitehorse, Myra pulled out a hefty “book” of white sheets. It was a copy of the Braille Courier – a compendium of news and magazine articles transcribed by the CNIB. Myra was reading an article that had been transcribed from the Walrus – coincidentally an article that I had read when it was published last March. It was an article about how Canadian universities won’t give failing grades to young people any more. It was controversial and it was thought-provoking. I passed it along to some power walkers whose university-age daughter I thought might find it interesting or possibly irritating!
The thing is I couldn’t just pass it along to Myra or anyone else who is severely visually impaired. I need the CNIB to be there.
As an avid reader, and some may say my reading habit has the qualities of an addict, discovering Myra reading an article that I had read three months earlier felt like a slap on the face that woke me to something that wasn’t as obvious as the travails of getting around as a blind person. Every day I read whatever is in front of me – the newspaper, magazines that come to the house, even cereal boxes. Every day reading adds to the richness of my life.
How does the CNIB find the resources to transcribe all the interesting material that is available to sighted readers into Braille and talking book? It’s a question that remains unanswered for me but I am grateful to Myra and her extraordinary commitment to walk these 13 half marathons over the past year. She has raised more than $60,000 to help them tackle this daunting task.
If you walk and you read, there’s still time to donate to Myra’s Marathon at www.cnib.ca/myrasmarathon .
Labels: Stories of Inspiration
posted by Wow Power Walking Founder @ 8:03 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Congratulations to Myra for her amazing committment and stamina.....we who have no challenges really have no excuses to get 'nothing' done in life.
Can you imagine the resources that the CNIB needs to translate the written word and decide what is current and of interest....it all is...what a task and kudos to Myra in helping others and the cause be known. We need a translater for the WOW Blog!
That was a good post about Myra Rodrigues
raising funds for the CNIB library. I'm visually-impared and that severely restricts my access to literature. The CNIB library was of great help when I wrote my Deliverance from Jericho memoir. The books about schools for the blind gave me the balance I needed to write an accurate account of my 6 painful years at Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind. I didn't want the book to be a rant so I wrote a matter-of-fact account. Though I have a screen reader on my computer and can scan in letters for it to read, I envy the ease sighted folks have in being able to pick up any literature and skim through it.
What Myra has accomplished is truly amazing! She is a true inspiration to us all. I am very proud that I walked Myra's first half Marathon with her - the Scotiabank - a few short years ago. Who knew that she would go on to do it again and again and again!
My hat is off to you, Myra! Congrats on a job well done.
This is truly inspirational
Congratulations to Myra... she is an inspiration to all of us...
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