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Avison Young walker to raise cash for Rwanda
David Parker, Calgary Herald
Published: Friday, July 18, 2014
Avison Young's Peter Thorpe is raising money for Opportunity International's work in Rwanda by walking nearly 500 km in southern England next month. His goal is $50,000, plus a matching donation.
One of the many interesting visitors I met during the excitingly busy Stampede Parade day was Doris Olafsen, executive vice-president of Opportunity International Canada, who was having a coffee with my friend Peter Thorpe.
Thorpe is a hard-working vice-president of Avison Young Commercial Real Estate but he also spends a good deal of his time and energy in supporting Opportunity International. He was introduced to the organization 10 years ago at the time he moved to Avison Young from Canada West where he was a tenant representative.
At that time, Tod Hughes, currently a principal and board member of the firm, managed the Calgary office and was a keen supporter of Opportunity.
Thorpe read a very heartsearching book called Blue Sweater about the problems in Rwanda after the genocide, and followed that up with not only reading the autobiography of Immaculee Ilibagiza, the woman who survived the genocide by hiding for 91 days in a neighbour's bathroom, but visiting her in New York after she was granted asylum by the United States.
He felt a real desire to help people in Rwanda and after discussing his interest with Hughes became involved in Opportunity.
Typical of the effort Thorpe demands of himself, he supported the organization, helped the local committee in raising funds with a golf tournament, sold tickets to fundraising dinners, and was invited to be a governor of its Canadian body.
His passion for helping Opportunity to help people stuck in poverty by offering small loans to give them a hand up in life and help get their children educated has now become more of a calling.
Thorpe and his wife, Liz Smith, enjoy hiking and have walked across the U.K. twice. Next month, he plans to walk half of the South West Coast Path in England - a total distance of 1,014 kilometres from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall to Poole Harbour in Dorset.
But in discussing his trip with Olafsen, he decided to turn his hobby into a fundraiser for Opportunity and will be walking the 485 kilometres from Minehead to The Lizard partnered by friends, family members and colleagues on a Pathway out of Poverty.
The trail rises and falls at every river crossing with a total height climbed equal to four times the height of Everest.
On Olafsen's visit to Calgary, she was able to tell Thorpe that a lady in Vancouver had offered to match all of his donations to the tune of $100,000, so he is working hard to raise his $50,000.
His story has gone over Opportunity websites across Canada, the United States and in England.
Meanwhile he is also organizing his first trip to Rwanda next year, when he will take a group of others inspired by Immaculee's story to visit an orphanage she founded there.
Avison Young has a culture of helping in its Calgary office. When they found out their office cleaner was able to bring her husband here from Ethiopia, they organized a collection and raised $1,000 to help her welcome him.
They then asked the owner of Eighth Avenue Place to hire her to clean their offices when they move there next month.