Wappa Sponsors Fundraiser for Brain Cancer Research

Wappa Sponsors Fundraiser for Brain Cancer Research

For the second year in a row, we're proud to be a sponsor for GET ON BOARD, a paddle boarding fundraiser for brain cancer near Niagara Falls, Canada.

Wappa's founder Layne Pennell is a cancer survivor (not brain cancer), and when he saw the opportunity to sponsor a SUP event aimed at defeating cancer, he had to get involved. The event continues to grow every year as do the proceeds.

Twenty-one-year-old Madeline Leblanc has continued to turn her passion of stand up paddle boarding into a fundraiser to honour two friends lost to cancer. Madeline bought her first board and started paddling in 2012, after she fell in love with the sport at age ten. In 2011 Julia Turner passed away at fifteen due to a brain tumor, and earlier that same year Lynn Lambert passed at thirty-seven.
 
As a result of the young girls passing’s Madeline created ‘On Board’ where she paddled 10km on July 10th 2014 down the Welland Canal in a little over two hours to raise funds for brain cancer research. Madeline raised a grand total of $4013.05 her first year hosting On Board to hand into the Canadian Cancer Society. Creating On Board was her way of saying goodbye to Julia and Lynn, and also her way of giving back to the cancer community. The impact this event has left on Madeline has driven her to run this event again for a fifth year in a row with raising over $23,000 to date.

On Sunday July 15th2018 Madeline will be paddling 5km’s down the Welland Canal while encouraging others to join her. At 10am the paddling journey will start at the Pen Financial Credit Union Flatwater Centre. Why not join her? What a great reason for a paddle.