Participation up, more than 1100 people ran but funds raised was down in 2012 for the Terry Fox Run.

By Pepper Parr

The people numbers were up – the money numbers were down, but the Terry Fox run was a major success nevertheless.

It was the 31st  time the event took place in Burlington. To date the community has raised $1,470,000 and countless numbers of Burlingtonians have run for Terry Fox and for those who found themselves facing cancer.

Don Carmichael, chair of the 2012 run, and expected to chair the 2013 run as well, noted that this year “we had a group running with more than 200 members.  That was very, very significant and is a large part of what the Burlington Terry Fox run is all about.”

More than 1,100 people participated in the run this year.  “We printed up 1000 ribbons for people to wear and ran out”, said Carmichael. “It was a very good crowd this year”, he added.

The fund raising didn’t do as well.  $84,000 was raised in 2011 while just $70,000 was raised in 2012, bringing the total raised by the Burlington Terry Fox Run since its inception to more than $1,470,000  That is a very significant sum of money.

Commemoration boards were set up on the site for people to write a few ords on. What few know is that the organizing committee has kept every board ever set up and written on. They are set up each year in a quiet corner where pople can go and read what they wrote in the past.

Every dollar raised in Burlington goes to cancer research and while the run doesn’t have an official sponsor there are organizations in Burlington that come forward to meet the needs that range from water to food.  This level of support is hugely appreciated by not only the people who organize the run but by the community at large.

More than 100 volunteers make the Terry Fox Run happen.

Carmichael noted that they were seeing more “teams” groups of people running to remember someone or support someone fighting cancer.  “In the past” said Carmichael, “we have had smaller groups running – three or four, sometimes a dozen or more.  The team running for Casey Cosgrove this year exceeded 200 which is a big change for the run.”

Many people find that the run is a way to commemorate a person and to use the time those who walk the route need to think about, celebrate or miss the person they are “running” for.

Many people see the Terry Fox run as a unique thing that happened in Canada and was the result of one Canadian’s supreme effort. The Canadian flag just seems to be a part of the event – and there were plenty of them handed out.

The event is as much a community event as it is a single person running,  with each person having their own personal reasons for being there, but everyone on the site for the same reason – they want to see cancer beaten.

Great strides have been made in research and many forms of cancer are treatable and cured if caught early enough. Carmichael expects to see more groups being formed to take part in the event.

 

 

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments are closed.