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Orange shirts fill Edmonton river valley for sold-out race

The second annual Orange Shirt Day run/walk at Kinsmen Park. (CTV News Edmonton/Brandon Lynch) The second annual Orange Shirt Day run/walk at Kinsmen Park. (CTV News Edmonton/Brandon Lynch)
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Orange shirts filled Kinsmen Park Friday as runners and walkers gathered for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

The second annual Orange Shirt Day Run/Walk was sold out, with 28 teams taking to river valley trails in remembrance.

"It was started last year to honour and remember the children who never came home, our little ancestors that never came home," said race director Anita Cardinal. "As well as to support those who did, who deal with intergenerational traumas every day."

The annual event is a fundraiser for OrangeshirtDay.org, Bear Clan Patrol YEG and Indigenous youth scholarships.

Cardinal, a runner, said the run/walk invites people from diverse backgrounds to participate in remembering that Every Child Matters.

"Running has been a source of healing for me. Running brings people together. I call it running towards the truth," she said.

Runners could register in three distances. In addition to a 10-kilometre and a five-kilometre course, a kids race followed a 2.15 kilometre trail – in recognition of the first 215 unmarked children's graves found in Kamloops in May 2021.

At the end of the day, participants were invited to an Elder's circle, to sit and listen.

"I think that is at the heart of what this race was, to bring everybody together so that we could all come together to learn from one another," Cardinal said. "Understanding and compassion is also another way moving forward and carrying hope."

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