Nearing 50 years since its inception, the annual Terry Fox Run has continued to grow in cities across Canada, and Fort Frances is no exception, with organizers for this year’s event working hard behind the scenes to make it the best yet.
Laureen Luchka and Laura Bruyere are the co-organizers of the local Terry Fox Run, and following the overwhelming success of last year, the pair have been long planning how to make this year’s run bigger and better. This year’s run is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 20, and will be taking place beginning at the Nanicost Building, a change from last year’s venue.
“Laura and I kind of took on the Terry Fox project last year,” Luchka said.
“Laura’s been working on the Terry Fox Run for four years, and last year I decided to help her out, and last year being the 45th year, it was a good chance to have it be kind of revived and to move forward in a new direction with it.”
That new direction wound up being a hit, with a huge number of people turning out at the Sorting Gap Marina to take part and the run itself raising more than $10,000 locally. The location this year might be different, but the organizers are hopeful the momentum from last year’s run continues.
“Last year was great,” Bruyere said.
“It was actually very overwhelming because it was a lot more successful than we thought it was going to be. We had a great response of about 80 participants; the weather was perfect, we couldn’t have asked for a better day. We had lots of donations and support from the community and raised $13,931.75.”
There are a total of six organizers for the event, Luchka and Bruyere said, so it was an all-hands-on-deck kind of day that saw the Terry Fox Run raise the second-highest amount that the local run has raised, as far as their records show. With a year between runs, the organizers said they “never really stop” thinking about it, and after a debriefing late last year, turned their attention to this year’s run, with planning getting underway early this year.
“Registration for the Terry Fox Run opens April 12 every year, as that signifies the start of his run, when he started in the 80s, so we had our first official meeting right around there,” Luchka said.
“We’ve had meetings probably every other week. We’re now getting to where we’ll probably start having meetings every week, and it’s just a great committee with great ideas. They want it to succeed just as much as we do.”
The committee will begin setting up for the run on Sept. 20 by about 11 a.m., with on-site registration for the event opening at noon. Bruyere said there will be a brief opening ceremony with a few speeches, and then the run will take off at 1 p.m., going from the Nanicost building to Point Park, and capping off the day with a barbecue and a few games.
Bruyere also stressed that there’s no need to actually run to take part. Other participants in the past have walked, strolled, rolled and more—some have even been carried—and it’s not even a requirement to head down and physically take part in the event.
For those looking to register ahead of time, the organizing committee has been out and about in the community at several different locations, including Safeway and the Market Square, but registration can also be done online ahead of the run, or in person the day of, and any amount of support is appreciated: as Terry himself said, every dollar counts in the fight against cancer.
“We understand sometimes times are tough for people, but 50 cents is better than no 50 cents, so we would just love for people to come out and show their support,” Luchka said.
“One of the biggest things I think, and Laura can probably agree with me, is that we’re not able to do this without the support of the businesses and the volunteers that we have on our committee. The businesses have donated so many items for us this year already. We still have donations coming in, but without their support and without the community’s support, we honestly probably wouldn’t be able to do this.”
Anyone looking to support this year’s Terry Fox Run through donations is welcome to contact Luchka at (807) 276-8181, or Bruyere at (807) 276-1005.
There will also be an official Terry Fox flag raising at the Fort Frances Civic Centre on Sept. 14 at 9 a.m.
