After a very challenging couple of years, including a fully-online edition in 2020, the annual Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research will be safely in-person at Elks Field on Sunday, Sept. 18.
Sept. 18 will be the 42nd anniversary of the Marathon of Hope. Organizers are inviting Moose Javians to join hundreds of thousands of people across Canada who will run, walk, donate online, show up to cheer and support, or otherwise participate in the event.
Craig Hemingway and Stephanie Meyer are once again the main organizers, with Meyer as the official run leader for Moose Jaw.
"I'm excited to have people come out to participate," Meyer said. "I'm excited to be putting on a quality event for the community and I hope people come check it out."
Registration will begin at 10:30 a.m. at Elks Field, located at 1600 Caribou Street West.
There will be bouncy castles, face-painting, a cash concession by the Elks Concessionaires, and roaming performances from Magic by Chris.
The run will commence at 11 a.m. with a distance of approximately 2.5 kilometres.
"If we could get 100 people out, that would be amazing," Meyer commented. "There is no minimum donation, there is no registration fee. ... Terry Fox is one of the longest-standing community events I can remember, and it has been a couple years since we held it."
As part of the lead-up to Sept. 18, Terry Fox Run T-shirts will be available for $25 each at the Wakamow Farmer’s Market.
Wakamow Farmer’s Market is 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday. Pick up a T-shirt August 27 or Sept. 3, 10, or 17. The T-shirt price includes tax and every dollar goes to the Terry Fox Foundation (TFF).
Meyer said that during the pandemic, when she and Hemingway were forced to organize an online run, donations actually increased.
"It was a huge surprise to us to see an increase in funding during COVID. We were very fortunate considering the circumstances."
To date, $850 million has been raised by the TFF, whose sole mission is to find and fund ground-breaking cancer research.
Register early for the run and start taking pledges at run.terryfox.ca/3283.
