He’s won the Calgary Marathon multiple times and has also marked off a win at the Vancouver Marathon too, but the champion runner from Kenya has never been able to compete for Olympic gold, but his friends want to help him get there.
Benard Onsare has had to deal with his fair share of challenges throughout his life, including fighting for his Canadian citizenship for the past decade and struggling with training and a full-time job to help support his family living in Mexico.
Now that he is finally a Canadian and his family is in Calgary with him, his fellow runners want to help their inspiring achieve the ultimate prize and are helping him raise money to do it through an event called ‘It Takes a Village’.
“We hope to, with the fundraiser, to allow him to train full-time and give him a legitimate shot at making the 2020 Olympics,” said Martin Parnell, one of the people who is helping put together the event.
The engagement will include speeches from people in the running community as well as Onsare himself.
He says that people who attend will be able to experience a part of his journey.
“They can be able to see that I am going to be there in Tokyo not just for myself but for the entire community.”
Onsare adds that he has done his part helping the community over the years and hopes that this time his community will come out to return the favour.
The event will be held at Crew Club Athletics in Mission on April 28.
More information can be found online.
(With files from Brad MacLeod)
