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Run Squamish makes donation to hospital foundation

Roughly half of registered runners contributed to cause after Loop the Lakes cancelled
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The Squamish Running Society, more commonly known as Run Squamish, is giving $5,000 to the Squamish Hospital Foundation (SHF).

Sean Verret, one of the society's directors told The Chief that when the organization's flagship Loop the Lakes event was cancelled as a precaution in the face of COVID-19, participants had the choice of receiving a 50-per-cent refund or donating that money to the SHF.

Roughly half of the more than 300 registered runners opted to contribute.

"We had some money still left over [from last year], so we topped it up to make it the $5,000," Verret said.  "We're a non-profit society and we try to give back in any way we can. When we saw all of this happening, and you see a lot of other events either not giving refunds or deferring their event to later, we just thought we should try to do something a little bit different to help the community.

"This year, we thought that considering the circumstances, donating to the Squamish Hospital Foundation was a very pertinent place to be throwing some of our resources that we've had available.

"It's a small thing, but we couldn't have done it without all of our racers and everybody else who supports the Squamish Running Society."

Verret said in the past, the society has donated to local trails organizations and to the food bank, typically in similar amounts.

"Some years, we bought a whole bunch of infrastructure and we didn't make donations, and other years, we donated around this amount as well," he said.

This year's race was initially scheduled for Saturday, May 9. Even in the face of the cancellation, Verret anticipates the race will go ahead in years to come when it is safe to do so.

"For this board of directors, this is our give-back to the town of Squamish," he said. "From that perspective, nobody's hurting as a result of doing anything like this, or as a result of the event not happening."

Verret said he'd received some feedback from runners frustrated that the refund was only 50%, though runners are typically only able to defer their registration for a future year. Verret explained that fixed costs associated with the event such as administrative overhead, insurance, permits and marketing materials don't go away.

"A lot of bills get paid at the outset," he said. "We're hoping that the amount that we have in the bank account gets us through to next year, and we're pretty confident that it will. If we're able, we're also doing to do something special for all the racers that registered this year in advance of next year's event."

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