At just after 2 p.m. on Dec. 31, Comox Valley runner Kacey Wall finished a month of running and fundraising by jogging up to the parking lot for the Puntledge River Recreation Trails.

"Did you make the 42 kilometres?" someone in the crowd of buskers and onlookers called out, referring to the distance Wall was considering attempting, which would make her run a marathon.  Wall nodded, pausing to catch her breath with her dog Bear. The gathered supporters cheered. Wall had just gotten her personal best time, capping off a month of running and raising awareness and funds to save the very trails she was running on.

"So it all started on my birthday," said Wall. "I put out a pledge that didn't really go anywhere. So I thought I might as well put my feet where my mouth was, and on December 1 I decided that I would run 200 kilometres total in December, including a 40k run on December 31."

The goal wasn't to fundraise a certain amount, however, Wall said that she just wanted to raise awareness for the cause. In 2024, the Comox Valley Land Trust announced a push to raise $500,000 from the community, as well as $1.9 million from grants and foundations to purchase the trees located in the Puntledge forest recreation area. The fund will protected the final 37 hectares of the forest from logging.

"I just wanted it to be more about raising awareness and getting people just talking about it and then people could pledge what they wanted, what they felt comfortable doing," she said. "it definitely got some money raised and then hopefully this gets some momentum."

The project as a whole does have some momentum. In the most recent update, the CVLT said that the project was 80 per cent funded.

"We have raised $470,000 out of the $500,000," said CVLT spokesperson John Dacombe at the event. "We're now at $470,000 from the community and then $1.4 million from the large donors."

Wall started her New Year's Eve run at around 8 a.m., and was cheered on by singers from the Reverberation Community Song Circle and Resonance Open Singing Circle. Throughout the day, Wall was joined by other runners and, in her words "only had to run 21 kilometres (or a half-marathon) by myself."

"It's about getting out there and protecting the trails that we have, right?" Wall said. "if we don't raise the money, then we lose some of this nature ... it was great to see so many people out supporting it, and the Comox Valley Land Trust for amazing supporting me."

"Now I'm going to have some soup and be in bed by eight," she added.