The White Rock/South Surrey Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) fundraising walk, organized by SOURCES and set to take place on February 26, is changing from a blended event into a fully virtual one. SOURCES CEO David Young and event planner Abby Gemino announced this change as part of a delegation to White Rock city council on Monday night.
“We considered many factors, including the transmissibility of the omicron variant, the pressures on our healthcare workers and hospitals, and how we were able to successfully pull off a virtual CNOY event in 2021 which ended up being our most successful year yet,” said Young. “So, in consultation with both the SOURCES Society and Foundation boards of directors, we decided to make the switch now, with a month to go, to host this year’s CNOY virtually.”
What this means is that participants may complete their 2km or 5km walk anywhere they wish, during “WALK Weekend” (February 25-27) or anytime in February. Similar to last year, SOURCES will plan a drive-by day in February for team captains to pick up “WALK Kits,” including the iconic CNOY toques for participants who have raised $150 or more (for adults 18 and older) or $75 (for youth 17 and under). There will also be a virtual opening ceremony on Friday February 25 and a virtual closing ceremony on Sunday February 27.
“We’ll miss seeing everyone together down at the waterfront for another year,” said Gemino. “But the virtue of being virtual is we can expand our reach and more people from other parts of the Province can participate. Last year, we had supporters fundraise and walk for us in Calgary, Toronto and even Portugal, which was incredible.”
“We are also working on a number of new and exciting things to engage both walkers and sponsors, including a series of contests every week in February. Join our SOURCES CNOY Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/sourcescnoy) to receive updates, share fundraising tips, get ideas for where to walk, and more!”
CNOY is a fun, family-friendly winter walk that raises awareness and funds for charities supporting people who are hungry, homeless and hurting. Across Canada, there are 167 locations participating and the White Rock/South Surrey location is currently in fifth place on the fundraising scoreboard, with more than $50,000 raised, or 25% of SOURCES’ $200,000 goal. Funds raised will support community programming including SOURCES’ Homelessness Prevention Services and Rent Bank – the latter program is 100% funded by this event.
Teams and walkers can register online to set up their fundraising page. Everyone is welcome and there is no registration fee. Visit https://cnoy.org/whiterocksouthsurrey to register to walk, volunteer or donate.