Uniting for a cause: Carrera por la Vida 2023

On the past Sunday, the 3rd of December, the Canary Green Team had the honor of taking part in the annual Walk for Life – Carrera por la Vida – here in the south of Tenerife. The Walk for Life is an event organized by the ‘Fundación Canaria Carrera por la Vida,’ which was started by Brigitte Gypen many years ago. With the charity event, the foundation aims to support research for breast and testicular cancer, as well as to support thousands of men and women going through treatment with different kinds of projects. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Brigitte for your inspiring work and dedication to this cause!

Carrera por la Vida: Life is a party

Every year, anybody and everybody is invited to take part in the Carrera por la Vida, whose main activity is a joined walk from Siam Mall to the End of Avenida las Americas, accompanied by bands and drums. But the party already starts way before the walk: At the Siam Mall Parking lot, participants can enjoy fun activities like Zumba, a 360-degree video booth, a charity shop, pictures, and more.

Participants register before the event by donating a small amount of money. Once registered, all participants get a t-shirt at the event, as well as their ticket to taking part in the Carrera por la Vida raffle. There is also time to get face paint, as well as to dedicate the walk to somebody by putting ‘I walk for…’ on the back of the shirt. After finishing the walk in Avenida las Américas, the party is just getting started as participants can celebrate with a DJ, dancing, and good music. Finally, the lucky winners of the raffle’s many prizes are announced.

White, Pink and Blue: Together we can

The whole event was simply inspiring. The energy during all parts of it was vibrant and uplifting. You could witness families walking ‘for mum‘ and groups of people dressed in pink and white coming together to support this cause, celebrating together.

Of course, there was also a more serious side to it. We were a mixture of pink, blue, and white t-shirts. Most of the participants, like us, were dressed in white, meaning we are all the people supporting the cause, maybe because we know someone who did or is still fighting the disease, or simply because we want to be there.

There was also a good amount of people dressed in pink; this meant that they were still fighting or did overcome cancer. It was nothing but inspiring to see women and men in pink walking ‘por mi, for me.’ The blue t-shirts were worn by the Carrera por la Vida volunteers – without whom the event would not have been possible. The blue stood for the support of men with testicular cancer, a topic which has become more important over the past years. Together, we were thousands of people coming together and walking ‘por tod@s, for all.’

Uniting for a cause

Lastly, although the Carrera por la Vida is not directly linked to what we do at Canary Green, it was inspiring to see people from different nations and backgrounds uniting for a cause. This is exactly what we want to achieve with our work. Canary Green is about creating a community of like-minded people who all recognize the urgency of Climate Change and are ready to step in and do something about it. Because together, we can achieve anything.