Hundreds walk, run to help rebuild Autism Center

Hundreds of persons participated in the Scotiabank Jingle Bells Run/Walk 5K event at the weekend which was aimed at raising funds to rebuild the Autism Center that was destroyed during Hurricane Irma.

“Our staff came up with the Autism Center as a cause that they really felt was important, and so today everybody that participated in our walk/run, Scotiabank is donating $25 per entrant to the Autism Center to help them in their rebuilding efforts, ” Managing Director of Scotiabank, BVI, Sarah Hobbs explained to BVI News.

Commenting on the turnout, Hobbs said she was pleased.

“It was so fun, very festive, and for a worthy cause so we were very happy with the turnout,” she remarked.

She said while the money generated from the event will not be enough to completely rebuild the Autism Center, it will definitely go a far way in helping with the rebuilding efforts.

In the meantime, the managing director noted that the annual event which was staged for the third time should have been held earlier but was postponed because of the impact of the hurricane.

“It is an event that we carry out every year. Usually, we do it around October or November, but we were so impacted ourselves by the hurricanes that all our plans were sort of put on hold. So we were happy to be able to pull this off in December,” she said.

Hobbs remarked that the festive-wear at the event was symbolic of the Christmas season.

I think the holidays are a special time to be thankful for everything and especially this year. I think there is so much to be thankful for, for us to come together in a strong community spirit, to be with each other, to support each other and I think an event like this is a great opportunity for that to come together nicely.”

She said in the three years that the walk/run has been in existence, the financial institution had partnered with the Peebles Hospital and during that time span, donated just over $80,000.