Sunday, October 5th
8am Checkin
9am Walk Starts from EMCS
6218 Sooke Road
Pancake Breakfast upon completion!
A 5km walk for the whole family.
In memoriam of long time Sooke community member Mike Thomas, who has passed away, Sooke Lions Club is supporting the Sooke Hospice Society in caring for palliative patients and their families.
Bring the family together and support this worthwhile cause. Registration is $25 for adults. You get a t-shirt and pancake breakfast at the end of the walk. You may wish to get pledges. Children may accompany their parents and will receive free pancakes.
For more info email
sookelionsmd19@gmail.com
Registration
$25 per walker, payable by cash, e-transfer or cheque made payable to Sooke Lions.
Please complete the registration form and waiver, attach envelope with payment and drop off at participating businesses: Seaparc, Sooke News Mirror, Sooke Pharmasave, and Sooke Home Hardware. Or e-transfer to sletransfer54@gmail.com and email registration form and waiver to sookelionscommunity@gmail.com
No fee for children accompanying their parents; they can enjoy the pancake breakfast for no charge. T-shirts not provided to children.
Registration Packages:
Schedule
- 8:00am Registration Check-in
At Edward Milne Community School, where walkers will receive their race packages including t-shirt. - 9:00am Walk Starts
The 5km route leaves EMCS, goes down Edward Milne Road, along Sooke River Road to Kirby Road, then loops back along the Galloping Goose Trail to Woodlands, Blythewood, and Parkland, where it meets back up with Sooke Road, completing the loop at EMCS. (Map in Registration Package) - 10:00am Pancake Breakfast
Following the walk, all registrants receive a free pancake breakfast, also at Edward Milne Community School. Pancake breakfast is available by donation to those not registered for the walk.
Lions Take Pride in First Memorial Walk for Mike Thomas
Article from
Sooke News Mirror
by Christine van Reeuwyk
Sep 18, 2025
A pride of friends will walk to honour former friend and fellow Sooke Lions member while benefiting the organization that made Mike Thomas’ final days peaceful.
A longtime Lion in the range of four decades, Thomas was an advocate for Sooke Hospice Society and often deemed it his favourite local charity, despite being one of many he supported. It was that agency that came to his aid after being diagnosed with brain cancer, making his final days more comfortable for him and his family. Thomas died September 9, 2024.
According to club history, Thomas did the Tahsis club’s Great Walk, a 40-mile fundraising trek between Gold River and Tahsis, eight times. He raised $5000 for the charity of his choice: hospice.
On October 5th, friends, family and strangers will embark on the inaugural Mike Thomas Memorial Walk to raise funds and awareness for the community-minded, and volunteer-run hospice in the town he loved.
Thomas is the reason Al Beddows, walk coordinator, is even a member of the Sooke Lions. “Mike got me into Lions 35 years ago, which I’ll never forgive him for,” Beddows said with a laugh. The pair became good friends, carpooling between Sooke and work at the Department of National Defence after Beddows moved out to the western community in 1990.
Thomas also served as town crier for a quarter century, helped organize an epic celebration of Sooke’s bicentennial in 1990 and supported organizations such as Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society and the Jack Brooks Hatchery, Sooke Harbour Cemetery, and the Sooke Food Bank.
“We hear these comments about the ‘guy that will give you the shirt of his back.’ That was Mike, for sure. It put a big hole in our club when he passed away, thus we’re doing this memorial walk for him,” Beddows said.
Sooke Hospice Society cares for palliative patients and their families, trying to keep people in their homes as long as possible, two dedicated end-of-life care beds at Ayre Manor.