Who We Are
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"JP's Team" was founded by Mary-Anne Bédard, Melly Ciffo, Cathy Vandergeest, and of course, Jean-Paul Bédard, the 2015 "Golden Shoe Award" winner as Canadian Runner of the Year. "JP's Team" is a community of athletes and altruists working together to raise funds and awareness for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
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Everyone has a role to play.
A special thank-you to the large format printing and design firm Gawck, who designed the logo and branding for "JP's Team
And to Edison Yao, the official photographer of Jean-Paul Bédard
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If you're an ATHLETE, you will be given the opportunity to order a "JP's Team" singlet to wear in your upcoming race(s). The beautiful thing about our team is that we welcome athletes of all ages and abilities, and our primary purpose is to provide a supportive and inclusive community engaged in bringing out the best in all of us. Also, by participating on our team, you will be encouraged to help us continue the dialogue around the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse in our communities—an issue that affects 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys in Canada.
Here's how you get started: Complete this online form and provide us your full name, your city, province/state, and what races you are planning to run in support of "JP's Team". As soon as we receive your form, we will be contacting you with all the information you need to make your participation on JP's Team an awesome experience for you, but more importantly, you will be working towards changing the dialogue around childhood sexual abuse, while helping survivors both big and small. Want to help, but don't want to run—then we would love to have you on our team as an ALTRUIST. In so doing, you have a HUGE role to play by helping us spread the word about JP's Team, and in raising funds for our designated charities by directing people to the official JP's Team Fundraising Link. Here's how you get started: Complete this online form and provide us your full name, your city, province/state, and what races you are planning to run in support of "JP's Team". Once we have received your email, we will be contacting you to provide you with everything you need to know to help us make a difference in our communities. UPDATE: JANUARY 2017 Collectively in 2016 we raised over $125,000 for organization supporting survivors of childhood sexual abuse, but more importantly together we have helped continue a dialogue about the importance of ‘being there for others’. When we launched JPsTeam in January 2016, we had no idea where it would go, and what shape it would take. Over the past year it’s grown into a family of more than 250 people across North America… What began as an advocacy community has become so much more—We are family… We reach out to, and include everybody… What unites us is our support for each other. It’s become very clear to me that my primary focus is not to raise money, but rather, to build community. So, with that in mind, I would like the theme for this year to be “JUST SHOW UP”… And for me that means, showing up in my life regardless of how ‘broken’, ‘scared’, and ‘lost’ I have felt… It feels as though there is so much negativity in the world right now, and that can leave us feeling overwhelmed and powerless. But when we ‘just show up for each other’, we create the perfect antidote to that negativity… We create love and community. To me, that’s what JPsTeam has become—a collective act of love. My plans for this year are to continue in my advocacy work for survivors of sexual violence, and part of that will be supporting the Gatehouse here in Toronto and Little Warriors out in Edmonton. The big awareness event for me will take place in October at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. I’m planning on running a “6 in The Six”… (2 marathons on Friday, 2 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday). #6intheSix But most of all, I want to encourage you to invite your family, friends, and colleagues to join JPsTeam… There is no cost to join, no fundraising commitment… All that you have to do is to support others and JUST SHOW UP. Every time someone sees one of our singlets, one of our t-shirts, or sees the hashtag #JPsTeam, it initiates a dialogue about resilience, community, and moving forward in life… and to me, that’s the greatest gift of JPsTeam. hugs and love JP The Motivation Behind JP's Team
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