Hundreds of people packed the Albion Fairgrounds Sunday morning, Sept. 15, for the first in-person Terry Fox Run in the community since 2019.
"We were told that the biggest Terry Fox Run in Maple Ridge was about 300 people and as you can see we've absolutely smashed that number," said Matthew Shellborn, one of two new organizers for the run, enthusiastically.
Deanna Dyer, the other organizer, was also excited and blown away by this years attendance.
The Ridge Meadows Pride 2012B Rep softball team were some of the many youth taking part.
Grace Dent, 12, was running for her grandmother.
"I feel like it's good to support people with cancer, who have it, and to raise money for the event," said Dent.
"A lot of people have died because of cancer and I feel it's very important to find a cure," said Dent, who has done the run with her school but never outside of school.
Her friend Jada Griffiths, 10, was running for her grandfather who died from cancer and whom she never had the chance to meet.
"I just think it's important (to take part in the run) because Terry ran for us and now it's time to run for him," she said.
City of Maple Ridge Mayor Dan Ruimy, who volunteered to sit in the dunk tank to raise money, said it has been far too long since the last in-person run.
"We're super excited to be back here today and restart this tradition," he said, noting worldwide $900million had already been raised to support cancer research to find a cure.
City councillor Korleen Carreras remembered doing the Terry Fox Run on her bicycle in her younger days in Port Coquitlam and she has missed very few since then, she said.
"It's really great to have it back in my home town again and to see so many people out here recognizing the impact that cancer has had on many of us and making sure we can have the funds to do the research we need to do so we're not impacted further," she said.
Registration opened at 9 a.m. at the Albion Fairgrounds where there were bouncy castles set up and T-shirts for the run were being sold.
On stage the band called Your Undercover Band, performed live music.
A special plaque in memory of Gord Reid, who donated helium every year for 24 years for the Terry Fox Run, but who died two years ago, was presented to representative from Lordco Auto Parts, where he worked in the parts department.
Kirsten Fox, Terry's niece, also addressed the crowd.
"Terry passed away 43 years ago and there is not a day that goes by that somebody doesn't say his name to me, or that I speak his name, or that I see a picture of him. And I thought a lot about what a privilege that is, that so many people want to know about him, they want to carry on his legacy, they want to talk about what he did," she said.
Anna-Maya Brown and Greg Brown were running for Greg's mother who had cancer. They have been to about 30 runs over the years.
They loved the Maple Ridge event because of all the activities on the grounds. Next year, they said, they were going to bring their grandson.
Former organizer Ali Wakeling, who was at the helm from 2014 until the COVID-19 pandemic, was elated at what the current organizers were able to do.
"I am so thrilled that these guys have taken this on and I love my new role," she said about volunteering along the run.
"This is exactly what we wanted. I knew I couldn't do this kind of thing. This is really what we needed," she noted, adding that she couldn't be happier for the community.
