○On Mother’s Day 2024, a small, slim figure with a dramatic white streak down the front of her dark hair adjusts her backpack and picks up walking poles at a hotel in Charlottetown, P.E.I. I strode west from there. Some 33 days and 435 miles later, we strode from the east and circled PEI, Canada’s smallest province, on foot to return to our starting point.
This would be a great accomplishment for most people, but not for Barbados-born Betty Hope Gittens, who is in her 80s. You could be forgiven for thinking it’s another notch on her belt. Five years ago (“When I was young,” she laughs), Hope-Gittens was walking the legendary Camino de Santiago. This is a 798-mile trek over much more difficult terrain.
In both cases, the purpose was to raise money for one of her many charities. “One person can make a difference,” she insists.
She proved this with her 2019 Camino Walk, which raised CAD 225,000 (approximately USD 166,000) for 13 not-for-profit senior care facilities in Ottawa, where she lives, and one facility in Barbados. did. “All the money we raised in Barbados stayed in Barbados,” she explains. We went to St. Philip District Hospital to buy beds, wheelchairs and other necessities for the poor elderly.
“Betty was very determined,” recalls her sister, Mrs. Denise Douglas. “As a child, she had a mind of her own. She did her own thing. She always got what she wanted.” (She added, sotto voce, “She was so spoiled!”)
ROthemarie Betty Hope was born in St. Michael, Barbados in 1939. Beautiful, popular, and stubborn, she chooses to drop out of high school. “Whatever my mom wanted to do, she was always okay with it,” Dennis sighs. Hope Gittens counters that academia was difficult because she was dyslexic.
In 1958, she traveled to Trinidad with another sister, Grace, to celebrate the short-lived Federation of the West Indies. There she met her future husband, Rudolph Ormsby Gittens, a Trinidadian living in Canada.
Returning to Barbados, Betty competed in the Jaycee beauty pageant and won, becoming the first Miss Barbados. Her prize included a trip to Canada, where she reunited with Rudy Gittens. The rest was history.
They married and moved to Toronto in 1959. Although he was a pharmacist, he studied medicine in Ottawa and became a deeply respected orthopedic surgeon. Betty worked to support his studies. She jokes that she is the only person to have been awarded a doctorate (an actual paper diploma) from the University of Ottawa’s medical school (the letters stand for Putting Hub Through) ).
“This walk gives me a lot of time to think. It’s spending time with him. It’s like meditation.”
Meanwhile, in addition to her two children, Betty was climbing her way to the heights of the business world. Starting out as an office worker (“I got fired from my first job!”), he eventually became a business partner and president of a successful company. Human resources (HR) companies that have lucrative government contracts. She then founded her own company arranging incentive travel programs for marketing companies around the world, and then started a human resources consulting service. Rudy passed away in 2013.
But determination, conviction, and indelible self-confidence have always characterized Betty Hope Gittens’ life. A founding member of the Women’s Business Network, she won the organization’s first Business Woman of the Year Award in 1983.
In 2014, she was awarded the Silver Crown Award at Barbados’ 48th National Independence Awards (for her work promoting Barbados in Canada). And in 2019, she received the City of Ottawa’s City Builder Award for her outstanding record of philanthropy.
Her philanthropy has always been closely tied to her deep religiosity, which puts God at the center of everything she does. “If you have true faith, you can respond to the needs of others,” she declared in a 2019 interview. “God is with me every step of the way.”
It was philanthropy that brought her to Prince Edward Island, and a desire to raise money for two homeless feeding programs run by the church in Ottawa. She always focuses on helping the most disadvantaged people.
I We met Hope Gittens on a blustery, rainy day a week before the end of her PEI walk. Her big smile is irresistible. In waterproof hiking gear and her trusty Merrell sneakers, she plods through dozens of miles every day without flinching. (“God was there to protect me.”)
Behind the intense fundraising efforts is a more personal and sadder reason for this special journey. Her eldest son Simon had died three months earlier after a tough battle with cancer. Betty was by his side every day.
“Simon was my first priority,” she explains. She found out about the walk about 18 months ago, and after having deep feelings about his death, taking it on was good for the soul. “This walk gives me a lot of time to think. It’s spending time with him. It’s like meditation.”
In her daily life, Hope Gittens is an avid walker, spending at least 90 minutes each day. “Walking is therapy for me,” she says. At 85, she says, “I don’t take any medicines other than the Mt Gay Rum, a squeezed grapefruit and two oranges every day.” That’s my vitamins and at the same time helps the Bajan economy. It is! ”
Officially established in 2021 by guidebook author Bryson Guptill, the Island Walk takes you as far as possible along dirt roads, service roads, and repurposed railroad tracks known as the Confederation Trail. A rough outline of the surrounding area of Edward Island.
“The walk is beautiful,” says Hope Gittens. “The island is beautiful. I walked with the rabbits, with beautiful wildflowers, and there was a breeze most of the time. And the people are wonderful. Some of the best I’ve seen in years. I have seen so much kindness.”
But there were some unavoidable sections of open highway that Hope Gittens didn’t enjoy. “There were no benches to rest on,” she points out. “This walk is still in progress.”
And her charm is in her actions, not her unpleasantness. modus operandiShe then sent a letter to Guptill outlining the details of the Adopt-a-Bench program, in which farmers provide small plots of land and donors sponsor benches at strategic points along the way. Guptill’s enthusiastic embrace of the idea shows once again that Betty Hope Gittens knows how to get her way.
I met her a week later as she emerged from the last section of the Confederation Trail. The weather is wonderful this time. “I feel great,” she beamed in response to my question. “It was definitely worth it.”
She is looking forward to returning to the hotel, taking a shower, and doing her hair (during the entire walk, her hair is hidden under a thick hat, far from her usual grace).
Already a new idea is floating in her head. This time, her sights are focused on the island of her birth. “You should be able to do walks like this around Barbados,” she exclaims. “The topography is similar, but it has its own unique characteristics.” [abandoned] train tracks. It’s about making money from tourism. The fastest growing sport is walking. ”
She reflected for a moment. “Let’s walk and cycle around Barbados. That will be my next project.” Barbados, take note. Hurricane Betty is approaching!
