INNISFAIL – Plans are well underway for the 42nd annual community Terry Fox Run but this year the home base of the annual event will be at the Innisfail Twin Arena.
A scheduling conflict at the traditional Centennial Park venue forced organizers to turn to the alternative Arena location for 2022.
Regardless of the need to change venues for just this year, organizers believe they have selected a great plan and route for Innisfail’s annual Terry Fox Run on Sunday, Sept. 18th; an event that’s celebrated in hundreds of Canadian communities.
The annual run, which began in 1981 to honour the late Terry Fox’s heroism and Marathon of Hope in 1980, has grown to involve millions of participants in more than 60 countries. The event is now the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. More than $800 million has been raised in Fox’s name as of April 2020.
Innisfailian Patrick Gleason is once again the lead organizer for Innisfail’s community Terry Fox Run.
With the traditional Centennial Park venue unavailable, and the alternative option at the Arena secured, Gleason recently went to work on a route that would be safe and enjoyable for participants. He scouted around the southwest part of town around the Arena for two days to find the best five-kilometre route.
“I really tried to design route so that there aren't a lot of pedestrian crossings, and this one doesn't have any. You cross the railroad tracks but they're always controlled crossings. So, I'm fairly happy with that,” said Gleason, noting the route starts and ends at the Arena.
“I designed it so it's a circle. People can register there (Arena), and then just outside the doors of the lobby we'll start and head off west and we circle around the baseball diamonds, and then head back on 42nd Street towards the railway. Just before the railway we turn left and go north; then go back over the tracks and do a loop just east of the Mormon church and then come back over the tracks; head back south towards 42nd Street, then back west down to the skating rink.
“It's five kilometers. If people want to do 10, then it's doing the route twice,” he added. “There is the pedestrian crossing at the railroad tracks (White Rock Crossing), which I was a little concerned about because it’s really loose gravel but I was just on my bicycle yesterday (Aug. 30) and lo and behold it’s been paved. So, hallelujah. A lot of my safety concerns have been alleviated.”
Gleason is also pleased that Scotiabank and the Innisfail Lions Club are both back to sponsor and support the annual event.
“Without the lions club and Scotiabank, the Terry Fox Run in this town would have some serious challenges,” said Gleason.
He said the lions club will once again make a “significant” financial contribution, help volunteers set up and take part in registration, and be available to help with event wrap-up.
Over the 42 years of the Terry Fox Run in Innisfail, the community has raised more than $160,000 to help in the battle against cancer.
“I think Innisfail should be very, very proud,” said Gleason.
However, Gleason is hoping the community can finally reach the elusive goal of raising a record $10,000 for a single Terry Fox Run, an amount that was almost achieved in 2021.
“Online donations tend to trickle in, and we actually raised $9,900 and change, just short of that $10,000 goal. In lots of ways you could say we made it. But every year is a new year. I want to really keep working on that $10,000. I think we can do it.”
He believes the 2021 fundraising total just shy of $10,000 goal was remarkable, given the public safety restrictions necessary to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We couldn't serve food or beverages or anything like that. We could have it outdoors but there had to be social distancing. In spite of all that we raised close to $10,000. I think that is incredible. It says a lot about this community. And so that's the goal again, you bet," he said.
