University team rides the Big Bike in support of the Heart and Stroke Foundation

Motorists honked in support, and onlookers waved and cheered from the sidewalks as a team of University of Ontario Institute of Technology students, faculty and staff members pedalled a 30-seat bike through downtown Oshawa. The ride was part of the June 20 Big Bike event to raise awareness and funds for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

The university’s team also included President Steven Murphy and university mascot Hunter the Ridgeback. The university team raised $1,600.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death for Canadian men and women. Every seven minutes, someone in Canada dies from heart disease or stroke. The funds raised for the Heart and Stroke Foundation are helping change that.

“I ride for my grandfather, Harold ‘Dusty’ Miller, who passed in 1985 after suffering several strokes,” says Christine Cairns, a Business Solutions Analyst with the university’s Information Technology Services department. “Dusty was an iron-ore miner on Bell Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and worked deep under the Atlantic in the mines for 48 years. I also ride for my cousin’s stepfather, who recently underwent a double bypass. The Heart and Stroke Foundation touches many lives, young and old. Riding the Big Bike is the least I can do to help raise awareness and funds for research and prevention.”

Cairns raised more than $500: the largest donation on the university’s Big Bike team this year.

If you missed the chance to ride the Big Bike or donate, you can still contribute on the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s website.