Reaching as Deep as Terry Fox

The perennial challenge of the Terry Fox Foundation’s National School Run has been to inspire students to “reach as deep as Terry”. Considering all that Terry was able to do in his abbreviated life and all that has been done since the foundation was established nearly three decades ago, these words might intimidate some.

But as we all know, individuals and groups of students in schools across Canada continue to take on the challenge of honouring Terry’s life and the lives of others who have succumbed to cancer. Camryn, a Grade 8 student at The Laureate Academy, recently lost a friend to the disease. On Wednesday, September 28, with the help of her Mentor and Homeroom Teacher Mr. Rambo, she deftly, but unselfconsciously,  managed to assemble the entire school on the south lawn of Laureate’s Landing for an unseasonably warm two-kilometre run, jog or walk along old St. Norbert’s flood-prevention dyke.

For many of  the students, it was the perfect opportunity to experience this fall tradition the way the Terry Fox Run was meant to be experienced: coatless, toqueless, mittenless and, instead, in a pairs of shorts and a t-shirt, with the sun in the sky and sweat on the brow. Students encouraged each other at most every opportunity, high-fiving as they passed each other and as they crossed the “finish” line. Smiles and modest celebrations abounded, and many teachers expressed genuine admiration for students’ effort to engage in some of that “deep reaching” of which the Terry Fox Foundation speaks.

The run itself is, of course, the culmination of a concentrated campaign of fundraising for cancer research. To date, The Terry Fox Foundation has raised over 550 million dollars worldwide for the cause. With impetus provided by students like Camrym, TLA students chipped in, donating “toonies for Terry” and having their names entered in a draw to win a commemorative t-shirt. Appropriately enough, a whole-school picture was taken to end the festivities, with draw winner Machabe front and centre, proudly modeling his souvenir of an event that has come to mean so much to Canadians and global efforts to combat a disease that touches us all.