Lisa joined Achilles in 2013 as an Achilles athlete. Besides being a Saturday Beaches regular, she has coordinated guide and athlete matching for the past two years and facilitated keeping the group connected through the pandemic with regular zoom meetings. She is a registered Social Worker and runs her own practice, Counselling with Lisa. She is infamously known for wearing head to toe pink and was even given the nickname “Pinky” during her half-marathon race.

Currently the Vice President of Achilles International Canada, Ramla joined the board in January 2025 and has been an athlete since June 2024.

Ramla’s volunteer roles include being a mentor for the CNIB’s new advocacy peer mentorship program, and supporting individuals navigate the challenges of advocacy, and helping them build confidence and skills to champion their rights.

A lot of Ramla’s work and volunteer experiences have supported the disability community through increased awareness, accessibility  and enhancing the rights and well being of people with vision loss.

Ramla completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree, specializing in Sociology at York University, along with a Social Service Worker Diploma from Centennial College.

Ramla has always been fascinated by technology and its potential to enhance lives, particularly in the realm of accessibility. The way technology evolves and opens up new possibilities for people with vision loss is something Ramla is constantly exploring and passionate about improving.

Sarah is very passionate about sports and wellness. She played Division I soccer at Coastal Carolina University, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. She also enjoys volunteering in her community and spending time with family and friends.

Faiza graduated with a degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Toronto, followed by a Master's degree from York University. She gained valuable experience at leading financial institutions in Canada before assuming her current role at Softchoice.

Additionally, Faiza is a social media content creator on Instagram and loves to share her passion for food and travel. She has close to 11,000 followers and has worked with brands like Tru Earth, Now Foods, Ethical Local Market, Goli Nutrition, Gong Cha bubble tea, to name a few.

She believes that joining the AIC Board is an opportunity to foster meaningful connections and recognize the transformative power of sports in promoting physical and mental well-being.

Having served as a guide and pacer for years, Ryan’s services included training with athletes and helping them prepare for events, as well as racing marathons with them and competing at major events, including Boston and Chicago.

Since moving to Vancouver, Ryan is hoping to build connections with the community and continue his services in British Columbia. Outside of running, he is a legal scholar and an avid reader.

David has been a volunteer guide with Achilles for three years and is a former volunteer with Trailblazers (blind tandem cycling).

He is a business analyst at a Canadian bank, and a former facilitator with Sashbear Foundation Family Connections (skills training for parents of at-risk and emotionally dysregulated children).

He is a year-round cyclist and avid kayaker.

Catherine started volunteering as a guide in the summer of 2024.

“The people in the Toronto chapter are so warm, welcoming, and eager to help me learn how to be the best guide I could be!” Catherine expresses. Since joining as a guide, she has ran and walked with incredible people and loves learning about new things happening in their lives when meeting up on Saturday mornings.

A fun fact shared by Catherine is that she was named after a street in Montreal (rue St. Catherine). Other than running, Catherine loves spending quality time with friends and family. She does her best to uplift her community through her work, which consists of women entrepreneurs and creatives.

Her life-long goal is to make a positive impact on those around her.

It was through his work as a director and actor with a theatre company supporting artists with vision impairments in 2008, as well as his work with VoicePrint, a broadcast reading service for the blind, that Jeff built an enduring connection with the Toronto Beaches' chapter of Achilles. Volunteering for Achilles has been an integral part of his life.

The highlight of Jeff's athletic career was fighting a 30 km/hour headwind and lashing rain for 26 miles to finish the 2018 Boston Marathon with his brave and determined Achilles' friends, Chris White and Andrew Jones.

Richard Marsolais, President, Achilles Ottawa. His goal is to complete the 6 Major Marathons with Berlin in 2024.

Provided by AIC President, Lisa Derencinovic

Thank you to everyone who has been on the board for 2024, with three board members leaving. They all have contributed greatly to the board and Achilles International Canada.

Through discussions at the board meeting, it was agreed that recruitment for new board members should start with the AIC community. Notices were sent out to the Beaches and London chapters as well as the newsletter. It was important to ensure disability representation  and therefore targeted e-mails were sent to recruit from the athlete population. We also had a very keen inquiry through Achilles International from an Achilles guide who had moved from Minnesota to Vancouver. A panel of board members, Lori Chong, myself and Jeff Orchard interviewed those who had expressed interest to share expectations and commitment levels.

All candidates were successful in being slated for the board. Catherine Tang, Ramla Abukar, Ryan Peterson and David McWhirter were introduced and a vote was passed to elect these new board members.

Lisa Derencinovic, AIC President

When we held our planning session for this year, Michael Schlesinger had asked us to think about arriving at the end of the year and answer the question: What would make you smile to have achieved for Achilles International Canada? I remember thinking that just getting to the point of having a founding board made me smile and there was so much potential and possibility ahead.

We did make more concrete goals in that planning session. The primary ones set our values as accountability, transparency and inclusion. Four key areas were identified: membership, communications, events and finance.

We experienced growth in all four areas, recruiting new guides and athletes, creating a website and quarterly newsletter, holding three successful events and managing our operational expenses. Community partnerships were started with the City of Toronto, Parks and Rec Accessibility Department, Beaches Metro News, Beaches United Church, the Beaches Sandbox, Alistair Munro from the Toronto Harriers running club and Lynn Bourque from the Runners Shop. Working committees were established around the four key areas and multiple skillful volunteers lent their time and energy to the success of AIC. Our Saturday workouts continued to be a source of positivity, encouragement and motivation.

Looking outside of the Beaches chapter, a chapter was established in London Ontario, led by Jeff Orchard. We also re-established communication with the Ottawa chapter. Jeff and Chris attended the Ottawa race weekend in 2022 with a warm welcome from Richard Marsolais, Ottawa chapter President. We have continued to strengthen this alliance and Richard will become a board liaison member in 2023.

Our relationship with Achilles International (AI) was strengthened through collaboration and support on various projects. They arranged for the legal and financial support we needed to incorporate AIC. Emily, Gerle, and now Arielle attended multiple meetings to help problem solve and brainstorm.

AI provided technical shirts for 2022 and 2023 and were instrumental in organizing the Hoka shoe sponsorship. Financial support helped two athletes and their guides attend the New York City Marathon in November as well as funded our Re-defining Abilities’ event in August. We continue to collaborate on the roll-out of Rosterfy and look forward to many more opportunities for AI and AIC to partner together.

We are always looking to develop new chapters and outreached to contacts in Calgary and Vancouver Island.

Apart from all the logistical and organizational pieces, thousands of kilometers were run walked and rolled by our members. You could tell by the overflow of race reports in our last newsletter that we are an active group stretching our reach from the New York City Marathon to the Road2Hope in Hamilton and more local events. You can see those yellow shirts everywhere! And I am definitely still smiling when I look back on all the wonderful achievements of 2022.

Lisa Derencinovic, AIC President

This year was the year of the race. Putting on Achilles International Canada’s first race was both daunting and exciting and took up a lot of the time and energy of the board in 2023. A race committee was struck with a mix of board members and running community members lending their expertise and knowledge to the process. Kim Umbach was our valiant race director and also chaired the race committee. Alistair Munro and Lynn Bourque represented the general running community, Alastair Taylor, Michael Schlesinger and Sandra Derencinovic gave their perspective as AIC members and the team was rounded out with AIC board members Lori Chong and Lisa Derencinovic. The board thanks everyone involved in the race, it was a resounding success! For more details on the race you can read our Winter 2023 AIC newsletter which can be found on the website.

The board’s accomplishments were not limited to the Hope and Possibility® race this year. The communications committee produced three newsletters, updated the AIC website and created an Instagram account to begin our journey on social media. BTW you can follow us @achillescanadainternational for any of you on the Gram. Many thanks to our communications committee of Claudia Frisch, Jeff Orchard, Meghan Jeffreys and Lisa Derencinovic.

The membership committee’s main project was recruiting and on-boarding new guides and athletes. We had an outstanding response from the volunteer Toronto posting resulting in approximately 25 new guides to support creating inclusion. We also added approximately 5 new athletes increasing our reach in the blind community through promotion activities. Thank you to Kim Umbach, Lionel Shaul, Liz Herdman, Chris White Jeff orchard and Lisa Derencinovic for their support and work on this committee.

Part of our mission statement is to promote social connections. Our events committee kept it social with planning 4 events in 2023. We celebrated two milestone birthdays in the club, had the return of our summer potluck and rang in the Holidays with our second annual party hosted at the Beaches Sandbox.

In 2023, AIC continued to strengthen its connection with Achilles International. Arielle Rausin visited Toronto for our Hope and Possibility race. Achilles International was paramount in securing Hoka donations for the Canadian chapters and many athletes benefitted with multiple pairs of shoes and clothing. As well AI supplied guide and athlete t-shirts for AIC. Being apart of the Achilles international community we had the opportunity to host two visitors from Mexico City during the Toronto Waterfront marathon weekend. They loved their time in Toronto and we all have a standing invitation to visit Mexico City!

All in all, 2023 was a great year with many achievements both big and small. As always the heart of the club is all of you who come out to run walk and roll every week. Congratulate yourself whether you ran one race or 44 races like someone we know. I’d like to close with the reflection of one of our guides on the community spirit of Achilles International Canada. In her words: “I’m inspired by all of you and your incredible gifts - your tenacity, your joy, your humour, your generosity and your friendship. You are a kind, adventurous and optimistic bunch and I’m so happy to know you all.” Thank you everyone.

Lisa Derencinovic, AIC President

2024 was my third year as President of the Achilles International Canada (AIC) board. In 2024, we added 3 new board members from outside the Achilles International Canada community. Teresa Lee took on the role of Treasurer, Sarah Allen was Vice-President and Faiza Berry took on Secretary. They were joined by returning general board members, Lori Chong and Ryan Hooey, as well as Chapter Liaisons Jeff Orchard and Richard Marsolais. The board met monthly to discuss, organize and plan the workings of AIC.

One of the major achievements of 2024 was the second annual AIC Hope & Possibility® 5K race. I took the role of Race Director with Lori Chong reprising her role as Volunteer Coordinator. Teresa Lee, Emily Gill and Milosz Makowski rounded out the race committee. Everyone contributed to the planning of the race, finding donations for prizes, connecting with vendors for services, creating race information, promoting the race, and many other tasks required to put on such an event. This year’s sponsors included The Runners Shop, All Access Health & Fitness, Othership, and Remarkable Bean. Even though there might have been some stressful moments leading up to race day, the overall feedback was that the race was a great success. Plans are in the works for our third annual race in 2025.

Other committees that were active in 2024 included the communications committee and the events committee. Claudia Frisch and myself produced two newsletters this past year helping to provide information and updates to the AIC community. Claudia also worked on updating the website. Our social media presence was expanded through posts by Alex Wiggington and Christina Franko helping to promote the race and raise awareness about AIC. Sandra Derencinovic and myself created social connections for the Beaches chapter with two milestone birthday celebrations, a wedding celebration, a summer potluck, a Halloween’s social  and the holiday party. Sandra also took on the role of Volunteer Coordinator and e-mail management for AIC. Heather Shepard organized the February Fit Challenge in 2024 with participation from all three AIC chapters.

Achilles International continued to provide support through their International Chapter Coordinator. This year saw Arielle Rozen leave the position for higher education and Karen Louis take on the role. I have met virtually with Karen multiple times and she is responsive to questions and concerns. I look forward to working with her in 2025.

As our mission states, we are committed to transforming the lives of people with disabilities through athletic programming and social connection. We grew with new volunteer guides and athletes. We attended Saturday workouts in all weather, year round. Many Saturdays we had large groups of over 20 people running, walking and rolling together. It is so inspiring to see the collaboration between our guides and athletes: inclusion, positivity and connection in action.

Read the 2022 report HERE.

Read the 2023 report HERE.

Read the 2024 report HERE.

“Growing up, I never thought of myself as an athlete or a runner. My central vision, the vision used for reading, writing and arithmetic was good enough to get me through mainstream regular school. But my declining side and distance vision meant balls hit me in the head, and I couldn’t judge how far away the volleyball net was. So I sat on the sidelines of gym class, growing more disillusioned with sports and fitness.

I remember we had to run the length of the soccer field every spring to see who would join the track and field team. In my head, I knew I would come last, be the Loser everyone told me I was so why even bother trying. I’d take one or two running steps and then give up and slowly plod my way up the soccer field.   The message I was given is, you can’t do it so don’t even try.

In my young adult years, I started to connect with my disability identity, exploring what was possible for a blind person. I learned about inclusion, accessibility and accommodations. I tried activities like yoga, dancing and walking. It was actually at a blind and partially-sighted walking group that I first thought about joining Achilles. One of the other walkers told me I’d really enjoy Achilles and I should just show up on a Saturday.

So I just showed up on a Saturday, not quite sure what to expect of either the group or myself. I was immediately greeted by one of the long-standing guides who had recognized my white cane. This was a serendipitous meeting as I would spend many Saturdays walking or running with this guide and he quickly became a reliable and loyal friend, as did many of the guides and athletes in the group.

Throughout my years with Achilles International Canada I have completed many races and logged thousands of kilometers. I even completed a half-marathon, though I’m still scratching my head as how my arm got twisted to do that. I come out almost every Saturday for the group run/walk because I’m surrounded by positive and encouraging people. Everyone has a smile on their face and is willing to share their time and energy to make athletes with disabilities succeed.

I still don’t think of myself as a runner as I am more of a walker. What has changed is how I think about myself. I am no longer the loser who had to sit out. I find the possible in a situation, adopting the attitude of let’s give this a try before deciding if I can do it or not. And I show up for myself in a way that the little kid on the sidelines wasn’t given the chance to. This is the power of Achilles international Canada.”