As I walk out of the large high school doors with my friends, Mackenzie and Sharlize, by my side, I smell the fresh fall air on this early Thursday afternoon. I see all of the small children running around the playground, wearing their little mittens and hats, frantically waiting for us to choose them as our buddy. My eyes continue to wander as I search for one child in particular, my younger cousin Linnae. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her climbing up the ladder to the very top of the tallest slide. I split up with my friends and eagerly approach Linnae to invite her to be my buddy for the Terry Fox walk to the regional park. She agrees to be my buddy then grabs my hand with excitement and we quickly rush over to find a teacher so we can receive our stickers containing the words “I walk for Terry Fox.” We place our stickers proudly on the center of our jackets and wait for the teacher’s signal telling us that the other students are ready to go.
We begin our walk at a fast pace and all of the students are lined up down the street, each with a buddy by their side and a Terry Fox sticker stuck in unique places on their jackets. I can hear country music playing faintly from a student’s phone behind us and I smile as I see how energetic everyone is while enjoying their time out in nature. As we continue to walk, a small white car drives by and the couple seems to admire our efforts. Linnae glances up at me with a puzzled look on her face and asks why we do a walk like this every year. I respond very generally by explaining to her that Terry Fox was an athlete who ran across Canada with one leg to raise money and awareness for cancer research. I see a smile light up on her face as she realizes how significant our walk really is.
We arrive at the gates of the regional park after walking for only a few minutes and begin to speed up as we walk up the short hill to the golf clubhouse. Here we are greeted by multiple teachers who are working hard to prepare hot dogs and ice cream for all of the students. Linnae and I wait for a minute or two in the line and we each grab a hot dog along with a vanilla ice cream cone. We head over to the condiment table to put a drizzle of ketchup across our hotdogs and then we begin our journey back to the school. We walk along the stone path, overgrown with weeds and filled with tiny gopher holes. When we look behind us, we realize we are falling behind so we quickly finish our food and decide to run alongside each other to catch up to the students at the front of the group. As we continue to run, we look around and see that our classmates have started running as well. We make it back to the school in just a few short minutes with all of the other students close behind us.
As we enter back into the school, we are directed to the gymnasium. There is a table sitting outside the gymnasium doors with a basket on top of it, so I reach into my pocket and pull out a five dollar bill that my mom gave me to make a donation to the Terry Fox Foundation. Linnae and I enter the gymnasium to go find a spot on the floor to sit. Once all of the students were gathered around the projector screen, the lights went out and the projector turned on. A slideshow of Terry Fox pictures are vividly shown as our principal thanks us for our participation in the walking event to honour Terry Fox. It was a moment of joy as I realized just how important our Terry Fox walk event was when it comes to being a proud Canadian.
Brianna, your story about Terry Fox brought tears to my eyes as I remembered my own walks to honour and appreciate this Canadian treasure. Fundraising for the Fox Foundation was a big thing for me over the years. In 2005 my 4-year-old daughter wrote a note to Betty Fox (Terry’s mom) saying thank you for having a great son. Perhaps I should have mailed it, but I think it means more to me than it would have to Mrs. Fox. Nonetheless, your piece has definitely hit the head on the nail with regard to choosing a uniquely Canadian experience!
There were a couple of lines that really captured my imagination. I was able to imagine Linnae climbing “to the very top of the tallest slide” (great alliteration) and when you wrote “a drizzle of ketchup across our hotdogs” it was like I was there. Having similar
Canadian experiences, the teachers serving hotdogs and ice cream is an easy scene for me to visualize. A greater word count would have allowed a lot more description, I’m sure the sights and smells of the hotdog stand alone could fill the assignment!
I wonder if you had considered describing Linnae, or the clothes either of you had been wearing? When I sit and reflect on your piece I am clearly able to visualize a few key pieces – that hotdog scene certainly, and the students walking with stickers on their coats. While including multiple locations, you were able to describe things so that the pictures in my mind are clear. However, the opportunity to share more details was lost as the story moved through the entire experience. An opportunity to really zero in on the “I walk for Terry Fox” sticker seems to have been missed. What colours were they? What size? Were they a standard round sticker or was there more to them than that? Perhaps it’s strange, but for me the stickers are a key part of this experience because I too remember proudly pressing the blue, red and white “Terry Fox Run” stickers to my chest.
Your story prompted me to look up those stickers, and I found this short video as a result. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQlIKZGpnBQ&feature=emb_logo I hope you enjoy it, because I enjoyed your story and I’m thankful for the reminder about this amazing Canadian and his effort to help people.