This Sunday, September 16, will mark the 38th annual Terry Fox Run across the country and Wallaceburg will once again be a part of the tradition.
Brad and Moira Eggett are organizing this year’s event once again, after taking over from Leah and Doug McArthur last year.
“It may be a bit easier this year with the fact that we have a year under our belt,” Brad told the Sydenham Current.
“We have deep feelings about why we do it in the first place.”
Moira added: “To have the same volunteers and supporters, it’s huge. That is what makes events. Not being from here, whenever there are events that happens that are near and dear to anybody, Wallaceburg just seems to always come out. That could be the concept of the small town and you see it, but I am always amazed.”
The Terry Fox Run is a non-competitive event where people get together as individuals, families and groups to raise money for cancer research in the name of Terry Fox.
The Eggett’s, who own New Vision Optical in downtown Wallaceburg, are proud of the fact they saw Terry Fox in London, Ontario during his ‘Marathon of Hope’ event in 1980.
Fast forward to 2018, and the Eggett’s were excited to visit the grave site of Terry Fox in British Columbia on July 28, on what would’ve been Terry’s 60th birthday.
“And so typical of the Fox family,” Brad said. “So we pull into the public cemetery where we know he’s buried. It’s a flat cemetery, so not the headstones, but the markers. There are signs, you wouldn’t even know he’s buried there. We figured there would be flowers because of his birthday, but no. We literally just came across his grave, his Mom is on his right and his Dad on the left. It’s just perfect, and so typical of the Fox family.”
“It’s so Terry,” Moira added.
Moira said their first crack at organizing the run was a success in 2017, as there was an increase in participation and they raised more than $14,000, $4,000 more than the previous year.
Registration for Wallaceburg’s 2018 run will begin at 9 a.m. in Civic Square Park on James Street in downtown Wallaceburg.
The run itself will start at 10 a.m.
Moira said the route is not only for runners, but bicyclists, rollerbladers, people with strollers and is wheelchair accessible.
The Wallaceburg route distances are 1km, 5km and 10km
“I cannot emphasize this enough,” Moira said.
“It doesn’t have to be 10km, it’s not a race and it’s not a run. It’s about participation.”
Brad added: “It’s about raising awareness and raising some funds.”
The event relies on community support, either through volunteers helping organize the event, participation in the event and especially with generous donations to the Terry Fox Foundation from the community, Brad said.
“The Terry Fox Run, nationally, it is all these grassroots little towns, towns of 1,000 people that put a Terry Fox Run on… that’s what is most important about it, that it keeps on going,” Brad said.
T-shirts are available once again this year and are for sale at New Vision.
Pledge sheets are also available at various locations: Taylor’s Variety, The Black Goose, Westbrook’s Flower Shoppe, 99.1 and others.
For more information about the Terry Fox Foundation, visit terryfox.org.
For more details about the Wallaceburg Run, you can email Moira at TFRW@nell.net or join their Facebook event page, here.
