Friday, Feb. 28, was a mighty chilly day, but, luckily for many Jasperites, they didn鈥檛 even have to change out of their pyjamas and brave the cold morning air before heading to work.
Instead, they rolled right out of bed and went about their business sporting their coziest and warmest sleepwear. The PJ clad community shared a pancake breakfast at the Old Fire Hall, ran through the streets, practised yoga and danced to live music all in support of the annual PJ Day to raise funds and awareness for autoimmune diseases.
PJ Day is the brainchild of Jasper鈥檚 Marta Rode, who four years ago was diagnosed with Wegener鈥檚 granulomatosis, a rare autoimmune disease that affects one in 40,000 people.
A year after her diagnosis, Rode started her 鈥渕ission to change the world鈥� by creating the annual event to raise awareness and funds to help find a common thread between the approximately 150 known autoimmune diseases.
An autoimmune disease is a disease that causes the body鈥檚 immune system to attack the very organs it is meant to protect. Under the autoimmune disease umbrella is arthritis, hyper and hypothyroidism, lupus, multiple sclerosis and type one diabetes, to name a few.
In an effort to find the thread that ties all of these diseases together, Rode, Sue Cesco, Hana Dankov-bye, Mayor Richard Ireland and Steph Sophocleous-Lewis have created the Find the Common Thread Foundation鈥攆or which the paperwork came in just last month.
Despite the cold temperatures last week, Rode said at the end of the day she was ecstatic.
鈥淐onsidering it was -1,000 C, it went great,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was teary a lot that day. I鈥檓 just so touched by everybody and their support. The people who came out blew me away.
鈥淚鈥檓 so proud to be a part of Jasper.鈥�
To check out more highlights from the day, search the hashtag #weonePJday or visit the Find the Common Thread Facebook page. You can find more photos on the 51暗网鈥檚 Facebook page.
Nicole Veerman
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