Preparations for the 31st edition of the Terry Fox Run are officially underway, the event’s organizing committee chair announced during a presentation at an Innisfail Rotary Club meeting last week.
Run coordinator Bill Hoppins said there has been a change of venue for this year’s run, which is scheduled to take place from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 18. While past runs have been held at the Innisfail Historical Village, this year’s event will be held at the Innisfail Middle School due to a scheduling conflict.
The theme will be “Working together to outrun cancer” and Hoppins said organizers hope to encourage local schools and businesses to join up.
Hoppins also reminded the Rotary members that this year’s run would be the first one since the death of Terry Fox’s mother, Betty. She passed away on June 17 due to complications from diabetes and arthritis.
“It’s a special thing as well,” Hoppins said at the meeting on Aug. 4.
In celebration of this year’s run, Hoppins donated a number of his old Terry Fox Run t-shirts to the Innisfail Quilting Society. The shirts will be used to create a large quilt that will be function as a banner to promote the run.
“It will be washed and washed and washed,” Hoppins said to a round of laughter.
Hoppins said the quilt should be complete by the end of the month. The committee is also working on the possibility of allowing people who make a donation of over $50 to have a name embroidered on the quilt in remembrance of someone who passed away from cancer.
“We haven’t quite finalized the technicalities of how that might happen,” he explained.
Last year, a total of 26 businesses took part - a number organizers hope to exceed this year, Hoppins said. He said businesses can become involved by reminding staff of the difference cancer research makes, by placing a poster in their workplace, and by taking a pledge sheet to obtain donations.
Organizers will also be hosting a variety of fundraising events leading up to the run. A donation booth will be set up at the Innisfail Farmer’s Market on Sept. 1, 8, and 15, as well as the Community Registration Night on Sept. 6 and 7.
During his presentation, Hoppins took time to introduce the run’s organizing committee: The Town of Innisfail’s Heather Fletcher, Remax Sun Country Realty’s Nicole Blair, Scotiabank’s Bryn Chambers and Stephanie Larson, and the Innisfail Province’s Brent Spilak.
Since its inception in 1981, the Terry Fox Run has raised over half a billion dollars for cancer research. Hoppins said organizers hope to raise $10,000 this year. Anyone pledging a Scotiabank employee will have their pledge matched by Scotiabank, to a maximum of $5,000.
Participants can register online at www.terryfox.org or by picking up a pledge sheet at any bank in Innisfail. Registration begins at 1 p.m. on Sept. 18 and participants can choose to walk, run, wheel or ride in support of cancer research.
Volunteers are needed to lend a hand at the fundraising events and during the day of the run. If you’re interested, contact Hoppins at (403) 227-4144.
Fox’s “Marathon of Hope” began on April 12, 1980 in St. John’s, NL. He ran the equivalent of a full marathon each day but was forced to give up the run on Sept. 1 in Thunder Bay, Ont. after his cancer spread into his lungs. By that point he had run for 143 days, covering 5,373 kilometres across the Atlantic provinces, Quebec and most of Ontario. Fox passed away on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22.
