The Terry Fox Run will take place at a new time and place in St. Albert this year, with a new organizer, Cassandra Meunier, at the helm. Registration for the 2014 Terry Fox Run will begin at 11 a.m. at Lions Park. The run begins at noon.
“Normally the run began at St. Albert Place but there was so much construction this year at Millennium Park, it made sense to move the event. And when I started pulling stickers off on all the old Terry Fox Run signs, I noticed that in past years, registration was at 11 a.m.,” Meunier said.
She signed up to organize the event back in March after reading a story in the Gazette about the need for a volunteer who could take on the job. A newcomer to St. Albert, she has participated in other Terry Fox runs and other cancer fundraisers in other communities. But she was always drawn to the high percentage of every dollar raised the Terry Fox Foundation promises for research.
“In other events I took part in, almost 50 per cent went to advertising. Terry Fox Foundation promises 84 cents of every dollar will go to research. I weighed, ‘What’s better for me for my dollars donated and for the time I put in and it’s the Terry Fox Run,’” she said.
More than that, Meunier is drawn to the heroism of Terry Fox.
“He’s ours. He’s our hero and his perseverance and his fight for cancer research has spread all across the world,” she said.
The St. Albert Terry Fox Run has had a mercurial-life that in past years has changed with the outside temperature.
In recent years, the peak was the 25th anniversary of the run in 2005, when $25,000 was raised in this city. Otherwise, the amount raised has hovered around the $10,000 mark each year.
“In 2011 a total of $8,400 was raised. A total of $12,288 was raised in St. Albert in 2012 and last year there was a slight slump to $9,110 raised. But there seems to always be a core group of loyal participants,” said Rhonda Risebrough, provincial director for the Terry Fox Run.
Even when there are fewer participants, Risebrough said, people tend to follow through by donating online.
“St. Albert is very generous and also the participation in the schools is generous,” she said.
This week the Terry Fox Foundation announced that it will distribute $14.6 million in grants for cancer research.
“If Terry Fox were alive today, I think he would be proud because of how far treatments have come. There is a better quality of life and longer life expectancy for many cancer patients, and the research, for example in early detection of some cancers and cancer screening has contributed to that,” Risebrough said.
Meunier has been working hard for the past several months to get the word out and she hopes that people will come down to Lions Park Sunday to make a difference. Though she has three young children, she has been putting up signs on roadways and stopping by stores and businesses to help promote the Terry Fox Run.
“Wherever I go, my kids are there with me, raising awareness about Terry Fox. You can get your pledge sheets online or you can make donations online. But come out and run, walk, bike or use your skateboard – any way you can, to move along the path for the Terry Fox Run,” Meunier said.
For more information visit www.terryfox.org.
