September 4, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. They’re back in school, and the whole tempo of the city changes. All those people with community wide programs are holding their committee meetings and timetables with task assignments are being handed out.
One of the signature events for Burlington is the Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research. The number of people who run is well over 1000 – 1200 last year. They raised over $80,000 Each year the number grows and each year more people find personal meaning in the run – many choose to walk and use the occasion to think about and appreciate someone they lost to cancer.
The event takes place this year on Sunday, September 15th.
Burlington has been doing this for 33 years and in that time has collected more than $1.5 million for cancer research.
Part of the crew that did the door to door distribution of flyers to promote the Terry Fox Run.
The Gazette did some joint promotional work with the Terry Fox Run people and distributed more than 5000 flyers door to door in the city announcing the run and introducing people to the Gazette.
We certainly saw a significant bump in readership and assume there will be a corresponding bump in the number of people who take part in the Run.
Daughter Kate, who now wants to be called XXX, on the lft with wife Bryana centre and Casey on the right figuring out which streets in Alton were covered.
That distribution effort got done by Casey Cosgrove and his family. They were out on the streets, of Alton Village for the most part, because this is a new community with people from Mississauga and Milton moving in.
The people organizing the run wanted to include this community and tell them about this signature event that comes close to defining Burlington.– we will see how many of them decide to take part.
Cancer is a large part of the Cosgrove household. Casey has been battling this disease for a number of years and has taken part in a number of trial medication programs. He went as far as he could at the Juravinski Cancer Centre and is now on a program at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.
Casey doesn’t know what the outcome is going to be. He lives each day being who he is: expecting the best and prepared for the worst.
Last year there was a Cosgrove contingent in the Terry Fox Run and this year Casey took on the task of getting more people out.
A former candidate for public office (Ward 5), Cosgrove will tell you that had he won in 2006 Rick Goldring wouldn’t be Mayor today. The Mayor doesn’t see it quite that way.
Casey Cosgrove is showing this city what it means to give back – when you barely have enough to get by on yourself. His being out on the street in blazing sunshine, walking briskly from door to door while his wife and their daughter Kate, who has advised the world that she now wants to be known as Katherine, were doing the same thing a couple of streets, over is what Casey believes he has to do.
He believes fervently that there s a cure for cancer but knows all too well that it costs a fortune to pay the scientists and the researchers to find that cure.
We have made huge progress but the battle is not over.
Be part of that battle – show up on the 15th – at the Pavilion on the Beachway. Starts at: 11:00.
