Canada 150 celebrations are everywhere this year, it seems, but a Canmore man’s version combines a passion project with raising awareness of child hunger across the country.
On June 2, Geoff Gyles headed out on his Journey to End Hunger tour with the goal of stopping and donating $10,000 in each provincial and territorial capital, and the nation’s capital on Canada Day.
In all, Gyles planned to donate $150,000 in honour of Canada’s 150th, but that amount has been bumped to $180,000, thanks to a donation of $30,000 from friend Jim Taylor of Cochrane.
Gyles is driving his Cadillac Escalade, and booking flights, to cross the country while travelling with friends and family, including his wife Jennifer, their daughters, his brother and sisters, etc.
“It’s like the family holiday I never had,” said Gyles, who, even as a 10 year old in 1967, dreamed of travelling to all the places he saw during centennial celebrations on TV.
“I was going to drive across the country and see every province and territory this year,” he said, “then I decided to put some meaning behind the journey.”
A native of Winnipeg, Gyles has a background in agriculture with Wolf Trax, March Agricultural and Enterra, which made him a passionate expert on food waste. Further, as a grandfather of four, he believes hunger should never limit a child’s potential.
“I wanted to try and help fight hunger, specifically child hunger. It’s a problem to have kids going to school hungry and it happens in communities across the country. Before I started, I did quite a bit of research.
“When things started going sideways in Alberta, I read that more people were using food banks, and that of those, 38 per cent were kids.
“So this journey combines two trips, actually. One is a great holiday, the other is to raise awareness of a problem that’s been around for 150 years.”
Gyles’ journey has proven to be something of a travel agent’s nightmare (“I didn’t spend enough time on travel plans”) as specific stops were booked according to a grandfather event in Winnipeg, for example, a desire to be in the North during the longest days of the year, being in Newfoundland when icebergs can be spotted in the surrounding sea and finding himself in Ottawa on Canada Day.
“I picked 15 charities in February and chose charities like food banks or programs specific to school kids,” he said. “For example, in Edmonton, I donated to Food for Thought, a school program where the funds would stretch over two years.”
In stopping in to make his donations, Gyles said he’s been very welcome.
“As you can imagine, most of these charities are run on a shoestring budget, so any support is welcome. There’s no exciting political agenda with this, but I’ve been on some TV morning shows, which has helped with awareness.”
For more information, visit www.journey2endhunger.com.
