On the eve of the New York City marathon, and at the largest community fundraising dinner held by Ethiopians in Toronto, not a word about marathons is to be heard.  Haile Gebrselassie, the Ethiopian marathon world-record is poised to run the New York City marathon but only his wife’s name is mentioned, in passing, with a  reference to an orphanage she is involved with.

There are over 1 millions Aid-HIV orphaned children in Ethiopia, a country about the size of Ontario and population of 80 million.  And, in Toronto there is a committed group of expatriates who are volunteering much time and money to increase from 150 the number of orphans they sponsor to 500.

My husband and I attended this dinner, to find out more about People to People AID Organization Canada as we are planning a gala event to raise funds to help them get closer to their goal of sponsoring 500 orphans.

It was a wonderful evening of entertainment, information and dancing!  We were shocked to find ourselves rolling into bed at 1:30 a.m., thirty minutes before the hour time gain, lucky for us.

There are more photos but I’ll have to post them tomorrow as the late night yesterday, has caught up with me, as well as the 70 miles, I ran this week.

More tomorrow!