The Terry Fox Foundation Visits With Us 9/20/09

Posted by Russell McMurchie 
 
Donna White of the Terry Fox Foundation honoured us with a visit last week and gave us a first hand account of parts of Terry's story. The Foundation is "Maintaining The Principals & Vision of Terry Fox". Terry's original dream of raising $1 from each person in Canada for cancer research, has been greatly surpassed. The Foundation has raised over $400 Million to date. Terry's run lasted 143  days - he ran the equivelant of a marathon every day during the run. He wore out 8 pairs of shoes.  Presently,
 

No Corporate Sponsorships are accepted. There are no mandatory fees for the run. No minimum donations are asked for or required of any runners.  It was Terry's dream that everyone should participate and have fun. The Foundation essentially runs on voluntary help. There are only 32 paid staff throughout Canada. Over 87 cents on the dollar goes to cancer research. 3 cents are spent on administrative costs of the Foundation, and 10 cents goes to fund raising. Everyone connected to the Run is a volunteer - across Canada. There are hundreds of runs around the World. The second largest run outside of Canada is in Cuba with over 2,000,000 participants running for cancer research. Terry wanted to "Make a difference". He certainly succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. In Canada, there were also over 1,000 head shave which raised substantial funds for the Foundation. Our own Barrie Seaton had his head shaved and raised over $4,600 for the Foundation. Terry's dream continues!