Image Credit: CFJC News

By Adam Donnelly

UGLY SWEATERS ARE BETTER

Brennan’s Ugly Sweater Run goes virtual across Kamloops this Sunday

Dec 3, 2020 | 5:13 PM

KAMLOOPS — Payton Comazetto has turned a family tragedy into a community triumph. Twenty-one years ago, her brother Brennan was struck and killed by a drunk driver. In 2017, Comazzetto founded Brennan’s Ugly Sweater Run, a fun-run fundraiser with a holiday theme.

This Sunday, people from as far away as Sweden will don their ugliest Christmas attire and take to the streets in a virtual edition of the event.

“I’m not really sure what’s happening,” Comazzetto says, trying to explain the scene on her sweater. “There’s a penguin that seems to be rising above the others and they’re all quite proud of him.”

Questions about where penguins got winter clothing and helium-filled balloons aside, there should be plenty of sweaters like Payton’s out and about on Sunday.

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Payton Comazzetto models one of her many ugly sweaters ahead of the annual Ugly Sweater Run she’s organized in memory of her brother Brennan. Image Credit: CFJC Today

“We wanted to make sure the fun was still there, and the magic of the event was still included,” Comazzetto says. “We’re having participants go out wherever they want to go. Go for your walk, run, snowshoe, ski. We don’t care what you do, just get outside.”

More than 330 participants have signed up for this year’s event. Since 2017, the run has raised $27,500 for the program.

“Power Start is basically a breakfast program that is unique to Kamloops,” Traci Anderson, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club explains. “Over 10 years ago, we attempted to ensure we remove all the barriers for kids to be able to get to school.”

From personalized wake-up calls to breakfast and snacks, the program runs in several schools throughout the community. For Anderson, the money the Ugly Sweater brings in will be an especially welcome help this year.

“We were a little unsure this year — not sure with COVID-19 and everything if the race was going to happen,” Anderson says. “We’re just so thrilled we were able to go forward and that Payton’s taken all the energy and time to be able to provide this.”

Registration for Brennan’s Virtual Ugly Sweater Run is open until this Saturday. Payton Comazzetto hopes to raise over $15,000 when the event is all said and done, all in honour of her brother’s memory.

“To just help kids, and to help an amazing organization I think is an amazing tribute to him,” Comazzetto says. “It really just highlights who he was and what he would have wanted.”

For more info, or to register for Sunday’s run, you visit www.runforbrennan.com.