Walk celebrates life while making a difference

Saturday, area residents celebrated life — and the difference — that one person can make when hundreds turned out to walk, bike and wheel their way across the Long Bridge and back.

The walk, begun five years ago by January Tuinstra and Julie Walkington, started as a way to honor Walkington’s sister Jenny Meyer and fund special gifts for local cancer patients.

While Jenny lost her long battle with a rare form of breast cancer in June, her legacy will live forever.

Her compassion and concern for other inspired the walk’s creation, Tuinstra and Walkington said. Even when Jenny wasn’t feeling well, she wanted to help others.

It is in that spirit, that funds from the walk are given to Bonner General Hospital’s outpatient clinic, Hospice and the Kootenai Cancer Center at Bonner General.

They are small gifts, really — a dozen roses to celebrate an anniversary, a massage to reduce swelling, a gift certificate for a tank of gas or dinner out or a 12-pack of pop and a bag of candy to brighten the day.

In it’s first four years, Celebrate Life has distributed $56,000 — all money raised because of a simple idea to walk across the bridge and back.

As the years grow, the walk has grown, too. Each year, more people take part; each year, more money is raised; and each year, more people are helped.

The most any of us can hope for is to make a difference, to leave the world a better place. Jenny achieved that and more.

Donations may be sent any time to Celebrate Life, Box 420, Ponderay, ID 83852.

Thank you, Jenny.

Caroline Lobsinger is the managing editor of the Daily Bee.