When Roby Sharpe received a telephone call telling him the annual Terry Fox Run was not going to happen in Yorkton, it didn’t sit right with him.
“It would have been the first time in 38 years,” he said.
So the Yorkton Regional High School counsellor called the Terry Fox Run office to find out details.
The problem was a lack of a local organizing volunteer he was told.
Sharpe said the local high school holds its own Terry Fox Run, scheduled for Friday, and he suggested the community could simply piggy back on the school’s effort.
“They wanted it to be on Sunday,” he said, adding a lot of schools organize runs outside community effort.
“I thought ‘we can’t not have it in Yorkton’,” he said, adding the run has special meaning since student Chad Young had the same cancer as Fox, losing his leg, and ultimately his life.
So Sharpe talked to Chad’s siblings Ben and Chelte about the situation.
“We decided we could probably do it at the school,” he said.
“It’s close to the community and the school,” said Chelte, who said she and her brother were eager to take on a sort of ‘project manager’ role for the walk.
Ben echoed his sister’s sentiments.
“It’s obviously an event very dear to the community,” he said, adding having a brother whose journey paralleled Fox’s so closely.
So the school will host the community run this Sunday, with registration beginning at 12, and the run at 2. People are also encouraged to pre-register online by following the links at ww.terryfox.org
Run staff will be on-hand Sunday to collect the pledges.
A hotdog lunch will be offered following the run, and Yorkton Co-op has come on-board to help with supplies for the barbecue.
