Students at Davie Jones elementary ran for their grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents, siblings, and even their four-legged family members at the school’s Terry Fox Run last week – and raised more than $1,500 for the fight against cancer.
The “terry ran for me” stickers were worn with pride on most of the hundreds of children at the Pitt Meadows school that took part in the run on Wednesday, Sept. 28.
One boy’s sticker said he was running for “Owen’s dad,” while another girl dedicated her run to her dogs. Grade 7 student Lewis Murden was helping out along the route this year. The 11-year-old said he was participating in honour of his aunt who passed away from cancer in 2019.
“My aunt had cancer and she lost all of her hair,” explained Lewis. “It was tough,” he said, adding that although he is proud to represent her by helping out at the event, and he was also a little sad.
Vanessa Crowe, another Grade 7 student, knew the Terry Fox story – that he was from Port Coquitlam and how he tried to run across Canada in an effort to raise money in the fight against cancer, with only one leg.
“It’s just very inspirational to know somebody from British Columbia, or our local area, has done something this powerful,” noted the 12-year-old.
“It inspires other people to do things like that,” she said.
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Before the run Grade 6/7 teacher Robert Prince addressed about 365 students who were in the gym waiting to for the run to begin.
He told them they were going to be able to share in Terry Fox’s experience.
“All of the people that we have loved and supported through all the years, including Terry, is what this run is about,” he reminded the students.
“So, when you are on this run. Think about Terry. Think about all of these people in our lives that mean the most to us,” he told them before the group was led through a series of warm-up exercises.
The run was about 800-1,000 metres long and took the students north along 194b Street, west on 120b Avenue, south on 195b Street, west along 118b Avenue to 194b Street and then back to the school where students were handing out granola bars.
In total the school raised $1,571.25 for the Terry Fox Foundation.
“Davie Jones students and families did such an amazing job,” exclaimed principal Jennifer Beveridge.
“I am very impressed with the amount of money we raised for the Terry Fox Foundation. The students were so excited to run and participate and I was so overwhelmed with the amount of enthusiasm and effort that everyone put into the planning of this event,” she said.
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