There was a distinctively cheery pink touch to a bright and sunny Sunday morning in Cranbrook, August 7.

Michelle Gray, owner of Shoppers Drug Mart, and Melanie Syvertsen, cosmetics manager at the Tamarack Mall store, organized the Pink Dress Run, and participants — child, adult, dog and cardboard cutout of Justin Bieber — took the important theme to heart.

“Our minimum goal is to get $2,000 each to participate in the (Weekend to End Women’s Cancer) run,” Gray said, noting she’d reached her goal prior to the five kilometre run and Melanie would reach her goal by run’s end.

The duo staged their fun run to raise the final funds needed to get them to Vancouver to participate in the 2011 Weekend to End Women’s Cancer, sponsored by Shoppers Drug Mart.

The August 13/14 event has become one of the biggest fundraisers battling cancer in the province.

“It’s a weekend to remember those lives we have lost to breast or gynecologic cancer and a weekend to celebrate the lives we are saving. This is a weekend creating hope for every woman’s future,” notes endcancer.ca, a website dedicated to the two-day, 60-km walk/run event.

“Since 2004, over $16 million has been raised by weekend participants enabling numerous advances in cancer research and care. Proceeds continue to fund innovative research, treatment, and prevention programs for breast and gynecologic cancers at BC Cancer Foundation,” the extremely pink website explains.

The runners departed the front of Shoppers Drug Mart, circled around the back of the mall and headed out to the East Kootenay Regional Hospital, stopping for a brief, refreshing spray and splash at the Kinsmen Water Park, before looping along Victoria Avenue back to the mall for a barbecue and raffle.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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