Hatters march during the first ever Citizen Walk About held by CORE Association. The event brought roughly 200 people downtown to walk from city hall to the CORE building to raise awareness for people with disabilities and the challenges they face in their daily lives.--NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker
Approximately 200 people got together Friday afternoon for the city’s inaugural Citizen Walk About.
The event was organized by CORE Association with the goal of giving people living with disabilities a voice to share the struggles of their everyday lives.
“I think we saw a lot of strong messages today,” said executive director Rita Bessant. “This is the first time we’ve ever held this walk about and the whole purpose was to educate and bring awareness to the struggles and roadblocks people with disabilities face.
“This isn’t to say that people with disabilities can’t get hired in Medicine Hat, or to say that they aren’t welcome here – it’s about having a voice and continuing to work to ending stigma.”
Despite rain and cold temperatures, the group of around 200 listened to speeches from a number of community members, then marched from city hall to the CORE building with signs for a barbecue.
“This started in Lethbridge and it has slowly evolved from something small to something that into awareness to all individuals with disabilities in the city so they can be seen and heard,” said event organizer Angela Walsh. “This is called a Citizen Walk About because it is important for people to know that we are all citizens. We’re all in the community. We all matter.”
A number of advocates spoke before the walk as did a few local politicians. Walsh says CORE was pleased to see so many people show up for the event, even with the cold weather.
“Honestly, we were surprised to see so many people,” she said. “It’s been very exciting for us and we’ve been getting calls and emails letting us know people would be coming.
“We’re floored by this – it’s just exciting that so many people wanted to take part in this.”
Walsh says CORE will be organizing the event for next year, to make it an annual occurrence.
“We had some hiccups but I think this went really well for it being our first time,” said Walsh.
