By Caitlin Brezinski

PHOTOS: Students honour Terry Fox’s vision of hope

Sep 25, 2014 | 6:58 AM

Celebration and memory walks for Terry Fox were held at hundreds of schools across the country on Wednesday, as part of National School Run Day, and students at Arthur Pechey School in Prince Albert participated one such event.

Kimberly Semenchuk, a Grade 5 teacher at the school, said that it’s important that the school and the community come together to honour Terry Fox and at the same time, make their own connections with people they have lost.

“In school, we are always talking about social justice and things that are important that we need to fight for and recognize and celebrate. Terry Fox was a courageous young man who left a mark on people that he knew and people that we don’t even know,” she said.

Rowan Greene, 13, said that the school has been participating in the School Run Day for as long as he’s been going to Arthur Pechey. As the president of the Student Leadership Council, he said it is an honour for him to be able to lead the school in this event. 

“I always thought that [Terry Fox was] so amazing. He’s so important and everybody looks up to him and he started cancer research so I really just like to support that,” he said. 

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Greene said that people should be aware of this sort of event because cancer is something that keeps affecting more people.

“My grandma has died of cancer. The more people that donate and the more research is done, it’s really starting to help it looks like,” he said.

Vern Hodgins, with the Terry Fox Foundation, said national school run days are now raising close to three quarters of the money raised. 

“I don’t mind that at all because that shows that the people who are getting the message are kids. The teachers are doing a super job at teaching them about Terry Fox and about all the qualities, never giving up, determination, perseverance, having a goal and sticking with it,” he said. 

About 200 students participated in the run and Semenchuk said that teaching students what they can do as a community can make a big difference.

“We’re teaching kids that if we come together and work hard, there’s endless possibilities.”

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