Dresden will be getting a special visitor next week to help promote the upcoming Terry Fox Run.
Fred Fox, Terry’s brother, will be touring around various locations in Dresden speaking to the community about the cause that was created and inspired by his late brother.
Cindy Brewer, the organizer of the Dresden event, said Fred Fox visited Dresden five year ago.
“He is just a down to earth guy,” she said. “You feel like he is somebody from Dresden. He is so casual, but just to have that close of a connection, it is quite remarkable to listen to him.”
Brewer said Fred Fox is coming to townon Monday, Sept. 14 to help Dresden celebrate their 20th anniversary of holding the run.
“He is going to be speaking at the high school and LKCS at 1 p.m.” Brewer said. “That event is open to the public so they are more than welcome to go and join and listen to Fred speak at that.”
“We are going to do a flag raising. We have a ‘Terry Lives Here’ flag, so Fred is going to be at the Municipal Centre to raise that at 2 p.m. Than he is heading off down to the public school to do a presentation to them as well. At 4 p.m. we are going to have a meet and greet with Fred at the Legion and then at 4:30 p.m. we are going to have Fred speak to us. That is an all ages event. Families are welcome, everyone is welcome to hear Fred on Monday at the Legion.”
Brewer said they have an assortment of “great things planned this year to help celebrate our anniversary and it’s the 35th anniversary of the run across Canada as well,” she said.
In terms of a fundraising goal this year, Brewer said their committee is hoping to eclipse a massive overall number.
“We were taking a look at our collective numbers that we have raised over the years and we are closing in on half a million dollars,” she said. “That’s just the community run itself, that doesn’t include the schools. That’s just what we have done on the Terry Fox community run.”
Brewer added: “It’s pretty amazing really. When you look at the size of our community, it’s pretty shocking and exciting. It’s going to mean that we are going to need to raise more this year than what we typically do. Our goal is to see how close we can get. It might be a little out of our reach, but we are going to shoot anyway.”
Brewer said there are a lot of ways to register for the run, which takes place on Sunday, Sept. 20 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion, Br. 113 in Dresden.
“There are pledge forms at a lot of places in downtown Dresden. McKellar’s has all of the ‘Terry swag’ I guess you could say. So they can pick up a pledge form there. They can also registered and collect pledges online at terryfox.org. Even if you haven’t done either one of those to things by Sunday, just come. Just show up,” she said.
Brewer added: “You can do an on site donation. There is no minimum pledge amount. We just want you to be there and enjoy that day with us. Come anytime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Sunday. It is an open start so just whenever it is a convenient time for you, you just come and register and start when you are ready.”
An anniversary ceremony will be held at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“We have got some speakers and some fun stuff lined up for that,” she said. “Being our anniversary we are going to switch it up a little bit. We have some fun stuff. We also have the night before for people who can’t join us on the Sunday. We will register them and send them out on a casual unmarked route on the night before at 7 p.m. same place, just at the Legion, come and register and go for a lovely night stroll.”
Brewer said they have a couple of service groups helping out this year.
“On the Friday night at the Legion (Sep. 18), the Firemen are going to be hosting a ‘Lite Bite’ which is something they do every Friday at the Legion. The Firemen are taking it over and pegging the money to the run. They are calling it a ‘Hot Diggity Dog with a side of Fries’ and that is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. On Saturday (Sept. 19), the Kinsmen are doing a car rally and steak dinner with the proceeds coming the Terry Fox Run. So we have got a line up.”
Proceeds go towards the Terry Fox Foundation, which supports various cancer research programs.
– File photo
