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Fourth Annual Team Marathon Row for Breast Cancer held at Headwaters Fitness & Racquetball Club

October 8, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Joshua Drakes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The marathon row was held on Saturday, Oct. 3, and ran from the early morning through the early afternoon, as teams worked together to row a complete marathon of 42,195m.

As Pinkville begins in earnest across Orangeville, and businesses continue to decorate their storefronts and add pink themed menu items, it all centers around supporting Breast Cancer Canada and furthering funding for breast cancer research and treatment.

Organizer Charlene Judge doesn’t plan on stopping at just decorations. Judge partnered with the Headwaters Fitness and Racquetball Club to host a physical challenge for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“I approached Tyler Robbins, who’s the general manager, four years ago,” she said. “I explained to him about my journey, my role on the board of directors for Breast Cancer Canada, and we kind of put our heads together and decided, hey, why don’t we do a marathon row and see if we could start to raise some money for the cause.”

The campaign was successful, and the event is now in its fourth year.

Attendees form groups of four or more rowers and find themselves a rowing machine at the gym. At the synchronized start, all teams start rowing, with the goal of working together to complete a full marathon, which is a total distance of 42.19 kilometres.

The gym also hosted a silent auction to raise additional funds throughout the rowing marathon.

The gym, Judge said, went above and beyond just lending them their space; they actively got involved to help promote and encourage participation, which Judge said she is very grateful for.

“I can’t thank them enough for letting us use their facility and for letting us basically take over,” she said. “They’ve also been very generous in donating a prize for the largest individual fundraiser and the largest team fundraisers. The largest team fundraisers are going to get a one month each free membership here, which is also very generous. And the largest individual will be getting quite a few hours on the golf simulator upstairs.”

The event was also supported by the Town of Orangeville, with Mayor Lisa Post attending the kickoff of the event, highlighting the already large sum raised before the row even began.

“Thank you all so much for being here on a bright and early Saturday morning,” she said. “Did you know that Orangeville has officially been converted to Pinkville for the month of October? And a huge shout-out to Charlene.”

“When we have people in our community with passion for a cause, great things can happen, as can already be seen today, with over $10,000 already being raised, and it’s only the beginning of October. We’ve got tons of time, so thank you all for being here. Row safely, and have a good time,” Post added.

At the beginning of the row, donations stood at $10,500.

The strong turnout to the row and the donation count are just two examples of the strong community support Orangeville displays for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

With more events and fundraisers planned throughout the rest of October, there is plenty more time for Orangeville to prove

To learn more about Pinkville, and to donate, go to breastcancer.ca/pinkville.

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