Annual Father’s Day Walk provides father figures, honours lost dads
Posted July 26, 2020 4:14 pm.
Last Updated July 26, 2020 6:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WINNIPEG (CITNEWS) – The COVID-19 pandemic may have postponed the city’s annual Father’s Day Walk, but that didn’t stop Winnipeggers from coming out in full force Sunday afternoon.
The Father’s Day Walk – initially scheduled for June 21 – allows people to honour their dads, grieve loved ones and find support from father figures.
“Some people are missing people, and they don’t know what happened,” said Matthew Willan, a father of two boys. “Those are the people I really feel for.
“All of us here have lost somebody.”
Participants and organizers say this walk brings together people in need of a family. There are some who have lost their dads, and some who never had one. Others simply can’t spend time with their fathers now for whatever reason.
During the Father’s Day Walk, Willan becomes a father figure for anyone who needs it.
“I had a hard life,” he said. “He (his father) wasn’t the best at all times but who is? I believe in forgiveness, keep love in your heart. That’s another thing I’m doing. I walk because I forgive him.”
An event organizer said the walk is about honouring the dads who go above and beyond for strangers and their own families. It’s also a grieving ceremony for the missing and murdered Indigenous boys and men who were taken too soon.
Deborah Woodhouse walked for her late son Steven Dodge, who she says was murdered. She says these killings need to stop.
“My son was an incredible young man,” said Woodhouse. “He loved everyone. There wasn’t an ounce of hatred in his body. He was a loving young guy with a future, and it was taken from him in the blink of an eye.
“I just want everyone to know that my son existed. He was murdered and he didn’t deserve to go. He should be here with us.”
