February is Heart Month. Let's Have a Heart to Heart.

One in 100 hundred babies born in British Columbia are born with a congenital heart defect. Congenital heart defects are the world’s leading birth defect (1). Sixty years ago only 20% of children with CHDs grew into adulthood. These days, approximately 90% of children with CHDs make it to adulthood with the support of specialised cardiac care (2).

Since 2010, with the unconditional contributions of our sponsors and generous donors, Triple Crown for Heart has raised funds totalling over $240,000 to support children with heart conditions undergoing medical treatment and cardiac surgeries. The funds raised are donated to two charities. The first is through donations to inpatient cardiac wards at BC Children’s Hospital (T6 at BC Children’s Hospital Cardiac inpatient and the Neuroscience/Surgery ward) through the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation which provides support for small attainable projects to  improve the family’s experience while in hospital.  The projects strive to promote healing and healthy recovery of the children and families. To date, funds raised successfully supported the upgraded renovation and maintenance of an outdoor healing garden space (2010 - 2013), expansion of the ICU family waiting area (comfortable sofa beds, complimentary tea and coffee for parents) and the patient kitchen for parents, and access to post-surgical Monogen nutritional home treatment therapy.

The second way Triple Crown provides support is through donations to the Children’s Heart Network (CHN), Camp Zajac. Camp Zajac is a fully inclusive annual summer camp accessible for children with medical conditions and disabilities. The funds raised through Triple Crown for Heart provides children and teens who have recovered from heart surgery and treatments the opportunity to experience social and outdoor recreational activities by attending summer camp in a safe environment, while having access to 24-hour on-site medical supervision and a direct link to the cardiologist-on-call at BC Children’s Hospital, if needed.

In collaboration with BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and Children’s Heart Network, we hope you join us in our goal to raise critical funds needed to support Cardiac Children and Families to ease their burden during their hospital treatment/surgery, and provide the children and teens a life-changing experience after recovery at a dedicated cardiac camp.

The Triple Crown for Heart Association cordially invites you to join the ride: Registration is now open!

Rider spots are limited. The registration fee starts at $80 and will increase as the event date draws nearer, so register early for the best deal!

February 14 – March 31: $80

April 1 – July 6: $100

July 7 – July 14: $120

Register to Ride the 2023 Triple Crown for Heart

Volunteer for the 2023 Triple Crown for Heart

We hope you will join us on July 15 for another epic Triple Crown for Heart event!

Marie Campbell, Founder Triple Crown for Heart
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(1) Marelli AJ, et al. Lifetime prevalence of congenital heart disease in the general population from 2000 to 2010. Circulation 2014 doi: 10.1161. 

(2) Moons P, et al. Temporal Trends in Survival to Adulthood Among Patients Born With Congenital Heart Disease From 1970 to 1992 in Belgium. Circulation 2010;122:2264-2272.

Triple Crown for Heart is back!

Have you missed the camaraderie of suffering in unison with a couple hundred other cyclists while climbing three North Shore mountains and raising funds and awareness for BC Children's Hospital and The Children's Heart Network? We’ve got good news! After a two-year pandemic hiatus and much deliberation, the Triple Crown for Heart is back to continue its legacy of supporting many children diagnosed with heart disease to receive the best care and most advanced medical treatment possible!

It’s been so heartening to see your continued interest in our event over the past two years - thank you for checking in with us, donating and seeing when you could register. Since many of our event managers, coordinators and volunteers are nurses, we were acutely aware of the risk involved in putting on an event with so many participants during a pandemic and chose to prioritize health and safety.

Although we are opening registration a little later than anticipated, we are grateful for you patience and enthusiasm and we hope you are up for the challenge just as much as we are! Our goal for this restart is to be safe and bring our small but mighty big-hearted riding community together once again. For this year's event you can rest assured that we will meet provincial health guidelines and have enough event support to keep our riders, event organizers and volunteers safe.

We cordially invite you to join us for the ride or to volunteer. It's time to get pumped for event day on Saturday, July 16! Register now as spots are limited and we are offering a discounted early-bird price until June 1. With over two years to prepare for this, we know you are ready to hit those mountains again, right? Okay, maybe you took a little hiatus from training and watched a bit too much Netflix or baked (and ate) too much sourdough instead, but it's never too late to get back in the saddle for a good cause!

We can't wait to see you on July 16 for another epic Triple Crown for Heart event!

Call for Volunteers for the 2022 Triple Crown for Heart

First of all, thank you for your continued support throughout the pandemic with your enthusiastic inquiries about the Triple Crown for Heart. The last two years have been such a learning experience for all of us. It is very exciting to slowly but surely return to “normal”!

We are gearing up to put on the Triple Crown for Heart ride on July 16, 2022; however to restart the event we need to find a few volunteers to fill key roles. Some of our dedicated, long-serving volunteers have had life changes in the last couple of years, such as welcoming new babies to their families and career changes. Also, many of our volunteers are in the health sector and are unable to make the time commitment this year.

We are looking for an Event Director, a Communications Coordinator, and a Social Media Coordinator (see links for details). If any of these positions interests you, please get in touch with us. Send your resume and a cover letter describing your interest including how you would be an asset to our organization to: steering@triplecrownforheart.ca.

Please feel free to share these position postings with anyone who may find these roles of interest. We will be accepting applications until April 10th and will be contacting the chosen candidates mid-April.

We are looking forward to riding along with you again in the 2022 Triple Crown for Heart!

Stuart Lew, Co-Chair, 
On behalf of Triple Crown for Heart Committee

Triple Crown for Heart 2020 in the time of Covid19

Dear Triple Crown Riders, Volunteers and Sponsors,

This year has brought some challenges for all of us. We do hope that all of your families are safe and taken care of. 

We recognize that we are all facing difficulties but we also understand that some day our lives will return to a new normal. This year, however with a heavy heart and with the responsible intention of protecting our community, we will be cancelling the Triple Crown for Heart 2020. We would be extremely happy to welcome you next year to join us for our Triple Crown for Heart on July 17th, 2021.  The event will resume unless there are restrictions upon us. 

If you chose to donate to BCCH Foundation or Children’s Heart Network through the Triple Crown we will issue a 2020 tax receipt for donations over $20.00. Over the next weeks and months, however, if you have the time and the ability consider giving blood or donating to the food bank, both these causes are in great need. 
Please take care of your loved ones, your elderly and the people of our community. We will see you sooner or later. 

With care and kind regard,
Marie Campbell, Founder and Chair

On behalf of the Triple Crown Steering Committee

Mark your calendars!

Our 2021 event will fall on July 17th next year.

In 2018, we raised an astonishing $22,074 from nearly 200 riders who tackled the infamous Triple Crown – Mount Seymour, Grouse Mountain and Cypress Mountain in one day. We donated $10,000 to the Children’s Heart Network’s Camp Zajac program, and the remainder to the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation for the Heart Ward.

Now in its tenth year, the event continues to grow in riders and funds raised. Come out and ride, meet new friends or catch-up with old ones and help us reach our 2019 fundraising goal of $30,000 for the kids and their families.

We continue to thank our amazing group of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers and supporters because without them, an event of this kind would not be possible. Are you interested in volunteering for the 2019 event? Click here.

Check out photos from previous Triple Crown for Heart rides!

On July 18, 2020...we ride.

SAVE-the-DATE
Saturday July 18th, 2020

Are you still lamenting over the lost hour due to daylight savings? Well the good news trade-off is the opportunity to extended your cycling in the evening and gear-up for our 11th annual ride this summer. We know it only gets better from here! 

Registration opens soon!

The other perk to the time change is being one hour closer to registering for the 2020 Triple Crown for Heart! Registration opens the first week of April, with our early bird rates in full swing.

Stay tuned

Volunteers Needed

Join us for an exciting day filled with fun, food, and heart
We are always seeking day-of-event-volunteers. If a friend, spouse, or family member is riding on the day of, we would love to have you join us while you wait for them to cross the finish line!

Please contact us through the website or reply to this newsletter if you are interested in learning more about the roles and an opportunity to join a fun team and make a difference!