Running with SAS

A Metro Vancouver marathoner and paramedic is embarking on a 500-kilometre run to raise awareness for sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

William Rogers will run from Victoria to Penticton starting July 29 to Aug. 15 to raise awareness and money for Servants Anonymous Society (SAS), a Surrey-based organization that provides sexually exploited women and youth with street outreach supports, long-term housing, life skills, education and work re-entry.

"It’s my way of making a little corner of the universe just a little bit better," said Rogers. "One woman, one child, one step at a time."

Rogers, who has been a paramedic with the BC Ambulance Service for over 20 years, hopes to raise $1 million for his cause and said if every man, woman and child in British Columbia donated 25 cents, he could reach his goal.

The 49-year-old runner will not be alone during the 18-day trek. His son Aaron, 14, will be right behind him on his mountain bike.

Rogers has completed 100 one-half Ironman contests and 21 full Ironman races, including the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii in 1989.

When deciding which charity to support, Rogers was encouraged to run for sexually exploited women and children by his good friend Brian Watts, husband of Surrey Mayor Diane Watts, who is a founding member of SAS.

SAS is different from most homeless advocacy groups in that it offers safe housing for women for up to seven years.

"Most of them don’t even know what that means," said executive director Mary Pichette. "Second generation, or not, they have never stayed in one house for more than seven years ever. They bounce around from school to school, foster house to foster house and family member to family member."

Each home, which houses eight women, has a full-time, live-in volunteer director instead of a rotating daily staff.

This helps the women develop a sense of belonging and trust, Pichette explained.

"It literally removes the fear of homelessness from their lives," said Pichette. "Nobody has that kind of model."