As Jasperites sporting feather boas, sequin dresses, tinfoil skirts, wigs and sparkly hats ran around town, April 19, passersby couldn’t help but ask: “What’s this all about?”
The answer, of course, is that the community was participating in the second annual, first official, J9 Sparkle Run in memory of Jeanine D’Antonio, a beloved community member who lost her battle with depression last year.
The event began at the white rock on the corner of Hazel Avenue and Connaught Drive and attracted a couple hundred colourful costume-clad community members.
“Jeanine liked to show up at parties, events, work, wherever, in crazy costumes and wigs, and I guess her trademark was probably the feather boa,” said Tracy McKay, as she welcomed everyone to the start line. “In general, Jeanine was a whirlwind of fun everywhere she went.”
It was in that spirit of fun that McKay came up with the sparkle run shortly after Jeanine’s passing last April. At first it was just supposed to be for a few of Jeanine’s running partners, but, before long, word had spread and 70 people had shown up, all in off-the-wall get-ups.
McKay said, in that moment, she had a feeling—“and I realized that feeling was happiness.”
“During a week of really intense sadness, there was this feeling of happiness. When you look around at people in wigs or if someone runs by you in a sequin dress, you can’t help it, you have to smile.”
After the success of last year’s event, McKay and a group of Jeanine’s closest friends gathered together to organize last week’s first official J9 Sparkle Run to raise funds and awareness for mental health.
Through a charity concert at the Jasper Legion—where Scenic Route to Alaska played to a packed house—a silent auction and registration for the run, $4,000 was raised.
Most of those funds will go to the Edmonton branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, but some will also remain in the community to support the high school’s “Elephant in the Room” campaign, which is meant to remove the stigma of mental illness and create open dialogue about mental health.
The hope is, as the event grows, one day all of the funds that are raised will remain in the region, making services more accessible for the people who need them.
“We can’t do anything about the fact that we lost Jeanine,” said McKay, “but what we can do is try to change the situation for other people with mental health problems.”
Nicole Veerman
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