Norfolk-Oxford Kidney Walk has a 25-year tradition
Chris Abbott
Editor
The Norfolk Oxford Kidney Walk marked its 25th anniversary on Sept. 27 with almost 50 participants.
“This is Anita and I, and family’s 25th year running this event,” said Greg D’Hulster, coordinator of the 2026 Norfolk Oxford Kidney Walk, noting this year’s walk in Port Rowan raised more than $6,700.
D’Hulster and the Dyl Pickles team, who this year raised $3,170, credited Glenda Filmore for her fundraising efforts over the last three years. Filmore raised $1,160 this year. Jaden Banfield, Jamie Drayer, and Jen Mason were also top fundraisers.
“Doing good, I’m still stable, not on dialysis, keeping busy,” said Filmore. “The main thing is being tired. Otherwise, yes, doing good.”
“I want to thank Greg, Anita and Glenda for turning something unimaginable into something remarkable,” said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady, who participated in the 2.5-km Kidney Walk to the Port Rowan Wetlands.
“Raising $162,000 is absolutely incredible,” said Brady. “All of you who are participating, I want to thank you as well for keeping this tradition alive, keeping the awareness alive, and the education on kidney disease. I can’t thank you enough.”
“This is the first year for us,” said Mackenzie Williams, captain of the Bee’s Kid-nees team, which raised $1,585. “Our friend Jaden (Banfield), he has kidney disease and in December he had a successful transplant. So we wanted to celebrate, and help other people get to keep their Jaden.
“It was his second transplant. I think he had one when he was two or two-and-a-half. It was his mom’s and it lasted 20 years. Then he had to have another transplant and it was a friend of his mom’s that was his donor this time. But he’s doing really good, we’re really grateful. He’s involved in the local theatre, so the whole theatre community rallied around him. The music community rallied around him. Basically all of Norfolk did – he definitely felt the love. He’s always had such a huge support system, especially with this last transplant.”
The hike to the Port Rowan Wetlands was enjoyed by the team, said Williams, who works at a forest school.
“I love that trail, I walk that all the time. It’s a very, very beautiful walk and we spend a lot of time pointing out the flowers, and all the ‘real bees.’ It’s a nice little jaunt and it’s really flat, which is nice. We had a great time.”
Williams said the Bee’s Kid-nees will be back in 2027. And so will their bee costumes.
“We might upgrade the bee costumes by then,” she laughed.
Gary Eves from the Long Point Lions Club, A2 District Chair for Lions Camp Dorset, spoke to the walkers about Camp Dorset, located near Dorset, Ont. (east of Huntsville).
“It’s a dialysis camp for people that need a break from life to go up to a camp and enjoy things,” said D’Hulster, introducing Eves.
“The Kidney Foundation donates to Lions Camp Dorset,” Eves noted. “The camp is run basically year-round, owned and operated through the Lions Clubs of Ontario, but the dialysis part runs for three months in the summer. It just finished in the middle of September for this year.”
Approximately $70,000 was donated by the Kidney Foundation of Ontario to Lions Camp Dorset in 2025, he said.
“I thank you for this (Kidney) Walk and all that you do,” Eves said to the Norfolk Oxford participants. “Have a great walk.
“Everybody in Ontario that needs dialysis has the chance to go to the camp. They do the registration through the hospital where they are getting their dialysis treatments. We service in the neighbourhood of 230-240 families going to the camp, every summer. We have 14 three-bedroom cottages, so they can bring their whole family if they so desire.
“We have to keep it going because, again, a lot of people don’t know about it. Last year, A2 was the only (Lions) district in Ontario that had 100% participation in donating to Lions Camp Dorset.”
You can read the full story on Lions Camp Dorset at www.lionscampdorset.com.
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