Some of you readers know this: I participate in a ton of 5k's, 10k's and some half marathons. I…read morehave participated in the Light the Night walk nearly every year for the past 25 years. It's an annual event that takes place in every major Canadian and American city - and most smaller cities, too, - organized by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I did this walk every year in Seattle when I lived there, and I've done this walk every year, since I moved here to Vancouver. It is always held in mid-October, and it is the most amazing walking event of all the hundreds I've been on.
I admit upfront that I have a personal connection to this cause: both my younger sisters died from leukemia (as well as a good friend of mine, too, this past year). But even if I didn't have this personal connection, I'd still report that this walk is the most magical and powerful of all. The last few years, I've had a friend and her boyfriend join me and they have no personal connection to the cause, and they were blown away by this walk. BLOWN AWAY.
So what makes this event so unique and special? So it always begins at dusk, and takes place as the sun sets and the night turns to black. There is always a thousand or more walkers. Each walker is given an illuminated lantern (red lanterns to those family and friends who support someone afflicted with blood cancers, gold lanterns to those who've lost someone to blood cancers, and white lanterns to survivors or those in remission).
The Vancouver LTN walk begins and ends at Lumberman's Arch in Stanley Park. The route wends its way clockwise along the seawall, past Brockton Point and the lighthouse there, the Nine O'Clock Gun, Hallelujah Point, the Row Club, up past Poet's Corner and back to Lumberman's Arch. Imagine if you will this walk as the sun goes down and the sky goes from reds and orange to periwinkle to lavender to navy to black, with the ocean on your left, the waters angry from the wind, turning the corner at the Brockton lighthouse to see the Vancouver skyline lit up like a jewel against the night sky. Furthermore, imagine in this scene a mile-long line (or more!) of a thousand walkers (or more), each holding aloft an illuminated lantern, undulating and moving en masse along the seawall, with glowing lanterns held high. As the sky turns black, all one can see is a mile-long line of lit lanterns, literally as far as the eye can see, ahead of you and behind. It is the most aesthetically beautiful (and somewhat surreal) visual ever seen on any walk.
Add to this experience the bagpiper. Vancouver's LTN walk is unique from others, not only because of the amazing location in Stanley Park along the seawall, but because they have a portion of the walk titled "the kilometer of remembrance", and there they've erected posters of photos and names of those family and friends of ours who have passed away, and they have a bagpiper playing along this stretch. It's so powerful and the music, so plaintive. At the end of the walk, they've another stretch of posters depicting photos of survivors. This area is titled "the kilometer of hope", and there are SO many photos here of babies and toddlers and young men and women, and some older folks too, all who have survived. And that's what we're all walking for: to see more and more of these photos in this area every year.
Other amazing aspects of this walk: they have an opening ceremony prior to the walk with amazing speakers, some survivors who tell their personal stories, and even a professional dance class warm-up! They provide the best food for walkers, ever, including SUCH good hotdogs that they grill up on the spot (they taste like Costco hotdogs - which I think are the best!), tons of snacks and fruit, etc. For those of us walking in memory of people, they have a "remembrance ceremony" where we honor our loved ones by lighting candles and/or posting their photos and/or writing about them in scrapbooks, and we can get comfort in a few moments of quiet reflection surrounded by other people who share our experience. (It's always helpful to me to know that the organizers of this walk offer resources to us all - those afflicted, family members, and those of us who grieve).
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is a top-notch organization. For these LTN walks, they've really thought of everything. The Vancouver walk is probably the best LTN around (I know people who participate in this walk in other cities. None have all the bells and whistles that the Van walk has). Of all the charitable events I participate in, and all the walks and runs and races (of which there's been hundreds), the Van LTN walk is the most beautiful and uplifting event there is, consistently, year after year.