Victoria seniors aiming to collectively walk more than 3,000 km in a month

They're not running in Sunday's Royal Victoria Marathon, but a group of seniors from Parkwood Place Retirement Residence is still aiming to cover a long distance this month.

Residents, staff and families from the facility are lacing up their shoes for a Terry-Fox-inspired journey, aiming to collectively walk the equivalent of the distance between monuments to the Canadian icon in Thunder Bay, Ont. and Victoria.

“Every person’s steps count," said Cheryl Chalifour, Parkwood Place's executive director.

"Some just walk a little bit, some walk a lot. One of our residents walks over 14 kilometres a day.”

In total, the group is aiming to walk 3,134 kilometres – the approximate distance between the two monuments – by Oct. 31.

The goal is to get seniors moving while raising money and awareness for the Terry Fox Foundation.

"Getting started wasn't easy," said resident Linda Rintoul, who walks 14 kilometres daily.

"(I thought), I might as well give it a try, I’ll just go around the block, you know? And then the next thing you know, the block gets bigger and bigger and bigger and eventually you want to do it. And that’s what happened to me. I want to do it now.”

In honour of International Active Aging Week – which started Oct. 3 and ends Sunday – 30 residents and staff at Parkwood Place collectively walked more than 600 kilometres. They celebrated the occasion with a small awards ceremony Friday morning.