Susan Murphy walked Spain’s Camino de Santiago to kick-start a five-year fundraising campaign for the Canadian Federation of University Women.DARREN CALABRESE/The Globe and Mail
The gift: Raising $17,000
The cause: The Canadian Federation of University Women
Susan Murphy loves to walk, a long way.
This summer she and a friend, Monika Oepkes, trekked 500 kilometres in Spain, covering much of the famous Camino de Santiago, a traditional Christian pilgrimage. They did the journey to raise money for the Canadian Federation of University Women, an organization that has been important to Ms. Murphy for years. Along with raising money for CFUW, she is also a past president and long-time member.
The women spent almost a month completing the journey and it was Ms. Murphy's third time walking part of the route. "I'm just captivated by that walk," she said from her home in Nanaimo, B.C.
The CFUW focuses on education for women and it awards a wide variety of scholarships to university and high school students annually. The organization is launching a fundraising campaign in honour of its 100th anniversary in 2019, and it hopes to award an additional $100,000 worth of scholarships that year.
"I thought this would be something good I could do to help kick-start the five-year fundraising campaign," said Ms. Murphy, a retired accountant and public servant.
She hopes to head back to Spain and complete more of the route, but isn't sure she'll do it as a fundraiser. "I'm very grateful for the donations I received on this walk," she said, adding that most of the money came from friends and family members. "It was way more than I expected."
Paul Waldie