Jenna Goulden admits to being a little nervous when she signed-up for her first BMO Ride for Cancer in 2019, but she quickly rose to the cycling challenge and the event has now become an annual tradition for the Halifax resident.
This is Jenna’s sixth year participating in BMO Ride for Cancer, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary on September 28. Although she currently works in purchasing at High Liner Foods, Jenna first rode as part of her former workplace team at IBM after attending a presentation by the QEII Foundation that she says left her feeling a little emotional and choked-up.
“Everyone has that connection to cancer. The year I joined we were funding technology to detect cervical cancer earlier and, as a young woman myself, it really hit home for me,’’ recalls Jenna. She rides for many reasons, including in honour of her young cousin who passed away from colon cancer a decade ago.
After changing careers, Jenna wanted to continue doing the ride so she formed a team at her new workplace a couple of years ago. She is captain of her team, High Liner Foods – Captain’s Crew, which has eight members this year including her husband, Jacob, and six colleagues. This year, she’s riding 100 kilometres on the trail.
Jenna is a heavy hitter on the Captain’s Crew team, having personally fundraised $20,000 over the years. Some of her individual and team fundraisers have included a fish sandwich lunch at High Liner Foods and a pub and restaurant crawl, which included over 50 attendees. However, one of her most popular and creative fundraisers first started during COVID-19 when hosting in-person and group initiatives were much more challenging. Jenna decided to set an aggressive fundraising goal and at each $1,000 milestone, she would jump into the ocean. Once she reached her overall goal, she would jump into the Halifax Harbour.
“I filmed it and posted it on my social media and it turned out to be a really good way to fundraise,’’ she shares. “I’ve done it four times and, since I’ve been doing it all this time, people now watch for it. I have a lot of people that year-after-year support me, whether it’s big or small.’’
She says other fundraisers are planned throughout the summer to help Captain’s Crew members reach their personal fundraising goals and the overall team goal of $8,000.
Everyone has a connection to cancer, says Jenna, and the fact that all funds raised through BMO Ride for Cancer directly supports cancer care at the QEII Health Sciences Centre is what keeps her coming back each year.
“It’s such a community-based event and there’s so much pride that the money raised stays local and advances Atlantic cancer care,” says Jenna. “It’s an amazing cause that’s easy to get behind.”
According to Jenna, one of her favourite parts during past BMO Ride events was during the last kilometre of her ride. She describes seeing the many personal messages of support written in chalk along the paved portion of the trail and passing signs announcing how much money was collectively raised that year. “Each year it gets to you that you’ve done this incredible thing and it impacts many lives,” says Jenna. “Having something like this in the community is making cancer care better and more accessible – it’s exciting to be a part of this.’’
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