There was plenty of room for more legs to join the Royal Canadian Legion's fourth annual Red Shirt Marathon, also known as the Walk of Honour.
About 50 participants donned red Support Our Troops T-shirts for the fourth annual fundraiser for Winch House, a Vancouver facility which provides accommodations for the families of veterans and first responders while they receive medical treatment or counselling in the Greater Vancouver area.
While the turnout Saturday was sparse, the message of why they were there was not lost on Larry Obst, a Prince George Fire Rescue captain.
"It's kind of a moral obligation for everyone to support the troops, even if it's only by going out to vote," said Obst.
"Certainly we have an infrastructure for CISD (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) and we don't have the exposure to that the troops do. I have done a course with some of the troops who were in Afghanistan and they don't talk about it, but the things they are exposed to the public wouldn't be able to cope with hearing about it. It's staggering."
Notwithstanding the low turnout Saturday, Obst says Canadians are showing increased interest in paying respect to the military and there's been a noticeable rise in attendance at Remembrance Day celebrations.
"There's a better sense of national pride," said Obst. "The military's responsibility is not just combat, they do so much more and if I was a politician the role of the military would be expanded into disaster relief, forest fire fighting and emergency response. They can mobilize better than anyone else."
More than a year has passed since the Lakeland Mills sawmill explosion and fire which killed two people and injured 23 others. The shock of seeing so many severely injured workers that night is the reason facilities like Winch House have been made available to first responders.
"Nobody can be totally prepared for dealing with something that traumatic," said Obst. "The thing about traumatic stress is it's cumulative, and it's not the big incident that gets you. It could be something as simple as a guy going to a call and a kid involved has the same jacket as his kid or has the same lunch box."
Winch House is part of a series of residences maintained and operated by the New Chelsea Society. The four-bedroom house is named in memory of former Prince George resident Don Winch, a war veteran and longtime Legion Branch 43 member who served as president and CEO of the New Chelsea society.
"The big problem is getting people identified and letting them know that the service is there, I think a lot of people don't realize help is available," said Walk of Honour committee chair Dianne Parnell. "For some people, that can take up a year or sometimes more."
n Next week, the legion will begin moving into its new facility, the former Elks Lodge at 1116 Sixth Avenue. It will reopen in September.
