2026 Canadian Walk for Veterans: Advice from Alberta

 

The 2025 Walk in Spruce Grove. Left to right: Ty; Gene; Paul Owen, Veterans Association Food Bank; Her Honour The Honourable Salma Lakhani, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta; His Worship Mayor Jeff Acker of Spruce Grove; Colonel Kevin Weidlich

The countdown to the 2026 Canadian Walk for Veterans is starting!  

On September 26 and 27, cities and towns across the country will join together in support of Veterans and their families. And this year we’re hoping to make the Canadian Walk for Veterans the best yet!  

We reached out to Ty and Gene Kushnir who lead Walks in both Calgary and Spruce Grove, AB, to get their top tips on how to organize a successful walk (or two!). 

Ty is a Medical First Responder in the Community Service Division of St. John Ambulance. Gene has had a 26-year career with the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve and in his civilian career, works for the City of Calgary as a Business Process Consultant. Ty and Gene are both members of the Order of St. George, a Canadian organization whose mission is to support members of the military and their families. 

 The Calgary and Spruce Grove walks raise funds for the Veterans Association Food Bank. The VAFB provides food hampers as well as wraparound services like mental health programs, employment support, tax clinics, advocacy with Veterans Affairs and even pet support.  

The VAFB is just one of many Veteran-serving organizations in Canada that benefit from the support of the Canadian Walk for Veterans. 

Want to support Veterans in your community by starting a walk of your own?  

We asked Ty and Gene for their top tips for newbie Canadian Walk for Veterans organizers. Here’s their road-tested advice. 

  • Don’t be afraid to start small. The first walk we organized, we were like “Oh, we don’t have food trucks. We don’t have this and we don’t have that.” We still had a successful walk! 
  • Confirm the location of your Walk as early as possible, especially if you’re in a big city. Big cities can have slower permit application and approvals than smaller communities.
  • Make posters and save the date cards and bring them to community events. We had a table at a Canada Day event to promote the Walk and ended up collecting donations, too. 
  • Spread the word with your local legions. In our experience, you need to go there and meet face to face. Give them posters and save the date cards, too.  
  • If you’re trying to break into a new community, connect through the community’s Facebook groups. When we were looking to start the Spruce Grove Walk, we posted a message: “We’re trying to figure out where to bring the Walk next year. What do you all think? Would you come out and support this?” There are five to six thousand people in this Facebook group, and we had quite a lot of positive responses. 
  • And finally: Just focus on getting people out there, raising awareness of the Walk and raising some money – the rest will come in time. 

Want to bring the Canadian Walk for Veterans to your community? Send an email to Tara Diaczyk at tdiaczyk@truepatriotlove.com to get resources and get started!  

Don’t forget to bookmark the Canadian Walk for Veterans website to see the ever-growing list of walk locations. And follow us on Facebook and Instagram, too! 

See you in September!