In an act far from despicable, a Toronto man raised over $10,000 for a local food bank by running 42 kilometres dressed in a Minions costume.
Tommy Trinh, 24, ran his first-ever full marathon Tuesday in support of the Parkdale Community Food Bank, raising $10,522 for the organization.
As The Toronto Star reports, Trinh sought to raise funds for the food bank with an earlier running initiative in June. As donations rolled in slower than expected, he wondered, "What do I have to do to step on the gas to hit this goal?"
Inspired by the Canadian Revenue Agency's now-deleted Minions post, Trinh proposed he run dressed as the ubiquitous yellow characters from the Despicable Me film franchise
Trinh told The Star that as his plastic Minion costume had no ventilation, "I was running off that adrenaline, and comedy" following his 5 a.m. start, recalling, "It was really fun in the first half ... people were laughing at the suit and everything."
"If anything, I want to kind of remind people that, like, you can just do stuff. You can go run a marathon and raise $10,000 for a good cause."
"Tommy's fundraiser has had such an incredible impact on the food bank," Executive Director Kitty Raman Costa told The Star. "The demand for our services have more than doubled since last year at this time."
Find clips of Trinh's run below, and read The Star's complete report here.