A Winnipeg grandfather who describes himself as “a decrepit sexagenarian” plans to walk 100 km in a single day to raise funds for his grandson’s autism program.
Tim Frymire, who says he has two artificial hips, is going above and beyond at the upcoming Free the Spirit 5k run for St. Amant Foundation on Saturday. He plans to complete the official 5k run and continue on all day and night until he reaches his goal.
Frymire’s seven-year-old grandson, Sawyer, recently completed an autism training program at St. Amant Centre, and seeing the impact the program had on the boy’s development sparked the idea for his epic fundraising trek.
“Over the past three years, he has come such a long way from the shy little boy who couldn’t pose for class pictures or be in any noisy social settings,” said Frymire.
“His language is coming along and he loves his days at school. Sawyer and many like him hugely benefit from the specialized support offered by progams at St. Amant.”
Get weekly health news
Frymire told 680 CJOB that he chose such a long distance in an attempt to generate public interest in his fundraising efforts.
“There’s so many good causes out there, so I had to find a way to make this stand out a bit,” he said. “This is my way of giving back. I could do the 5 (km), but no one would give me much money for doing 5. I figured if I could give them a little wow factor and do 100, they’d be a little more motivated.
“If the old body can stand up to it, I hope to do 100 km.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, Frymire had almost tripled his fundraising goal of $1,000.
Comments