The 3rd Annual Thanksgiving Walk with Qaiser Saghir Mayo occurred on October 13th and was a n approximately 50km walk from Toronto City Hall to Milton Town Hall all in one day.
Qaiser has been doing these walks for many years but his Milton walk was the longest ever. He does this to help raise funds and awareness for Autism Ontario and many of the walkers and organizers who helped him have family members with Autism.
The walk started when it was dark at Toronto CityHall with CP24 interviewing Qaiser and his fellow walkers which included Miltonian Rick Di Lorenzo.
He had a “helper vehicle” that would shadow all the walkers so if there was a medical situation or someone needed a drink or snack (oranges, bananas, etc) the vehicle would meet walkers every 5km along the route.
People would join us at different locations, some walking. 5, 10 or 15km so Qaiser always had people with him as he went.
Once he crossed over into Milton for the final stretch he was joined and cheered on by many Milton families and things slowed down every so slightly as larger crowds started to follow and walk with him.
When we reached Milton Town Hall there was a large welcoming group of residents, dignitaries, volunteers and
the Mayor. Qaiser was also met by Nadeem Akbar who is also his friend in Milton. Nadeem along with Zaheer Ashraf worked in the background to prepare for Qaiser arrival at Milton Town Hall with snacks and refreshments for the walkers and a podium and speeches celebrating the walk accomplishment.
“When Qaiser first spoke to me, I immediately felt that this cause was too important to ignore. Autism touches the lives of so many families in our community, and together we can make a difference” said Nadeem Akbar – Khattana.
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