Hello!

I'm Carolyn; a 32 year old teacher who lives and works in the Ottawa Valley on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin people. I am also a teacher (madame) to a wonderful and hardworking group of students during the 10 months of the school year.

I entered my summer break feeling disheartened by the heaviness of the world after an emotionally difficult school year. As many others like me have felt before, I was sucked into my phone and had a constant feeling of needing to follow the news, but unable to pull myself away or consume any of it in a healthy way. I was tired of feeling helpless and wanted so badly to do something to help others and selfishly, make myself feel better about the weight of the world. Which is when I got inspired by my students...

Over the past 2 years students in my community singlehandedly raised over $2000 towards The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in 2024 and The Canadian Cancer Society this spring in 2025, respectively. The feeling of knowing that hard work pays off and seeing how it can help others affected me deeply. I wanted to do the same for others living in Palestine.

This is why in July I started completing a couch to 5k and decided to pledge to raise $1000 to help provide food and medical supplies for Palestinians. I will match donations up to $500 and all proceeds will go to MEDICAL AID FOR PALESTINE ASSOCIATION/ASSOCIATION AIDE MEDICALE POUR LA PALESTINE.

I have tried running a few times before, but have gotten discouraged in the past. I wanted to do something challenging with a realistic deadline and found out that there was an Ottawa Run for Palestine each fall, and so I registered for the 2025 race September 13th.

It has been a great challenge physically, but even more so mentally as I find that our minds can talk us in or out of what our body is capable of. Most of all, a little hope that maybe one person can make a small difference and inspire others to do the same. I hope this inspires you to do things that you care about.

Any financial support is appreciated, but if you can't donate, please share if you can.

Thanks for reading ❤️

Carolyn