Secondary students at the Greater Essex County District School Board have come together to honour Terry Fox’s legacy and to continue his Marathon of Hope.
About 600 students from the board’s 13 secondary schools gathered at Sandwich Secondary School in LaSalle on Thursday for a system-wide event to support the Terry Fox Foundation by raising awareness, and supporting cancer research.
Each student was asked to walk 12 laps around the school’s track, roughly the remaining 3,000 kilometres Terry Fox had left on his Marathon of Hope.
Payton Cacilhas is a Grade 12 student at Erie Migration District School in Kingsville.
She’s the school’s prime minister and says it was beautiful to see all the schools come together.
“It feels really great to be able to be a part of something that is so important; it has really helped and impacted so many lives,” she says. “I’m really excited; we’re all really hyped up to be able to actually finish this for Terry.”
Cacilhas says it was important for her to take part in the event.
“I really think that the importance of the event is just to raise awareness not only for cancer research but also for how impactful Terry truly was to the entire foundation and how much money we’re able to raise is really important to go towards that research,” says Cacilhas.
Niels van Paassen is a Grade 12 student at Erie Migration District School in Kingsville.
He also took part in the event and says it was nice to see students focused and caring about the event.
“For me it’s just a great event to show up to,” says van Paassen. “I’ve recently lost a family friend to cancer, so for me it’s super important to get out here, spread awareness, and make sure everyone knows what the point of the Terry Fox Foundation is.
Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) Health and Wellness along with Student Senate students participated in the event.
Guest speakers included Terry Fox’s older brother, Fred Fox, and Tyler McGregor, captain of Canada’s National Para Hockey Team.
