My Canadian roots, that is.It's that time of the year. September: month of tree pruning, get-out-the-snowsuits-to-wash, and dirty movies stockpiling (long winter nights and all). :)
But September is also the Terry Fox month. The world's largest run against cancer. He started that run, what he called the "marathon of hope", at the ripe old age of 21 after having a leg amputated to stop a cancer. So in April of 1980, and for 143 days, he ran around 40 kms (20+ miles) a day to raise money for cancer research. His goal was to raise 1$ from every Canadian. Rain, sun, slush. The dude ran all these kms/miles on his one good leg and a prosthesis. He died at 22 before he could reach his goal, which was to cross Canada (look at the map, it's HUGE, yo!).
But in a way, he's still running today. Every year in September, millions of kids around the world, thousands of teachers and parents and dozens of countries participate in the Terry Fox Run. My men and I did this weekend, we ran (okay, so I walked and the kid biked) 10kms/6.5 miles on a bright and sunny German day (one of the four bright and sunny days in Germany...). After we were done, we had hotdogs at the community center and complained about our crappy new sneakers, our little aches and pains and the crazy price of gas (try 13$ a U.S. gallon). It was a good day.
So, what's your favorite charity, eh?
1 comment:
I remember when Terry Fox was running across the country. It was heartbreaking when he had to stop. It was particularly hard for my family because my father was dying of cancer at the time and looked at Terry as a source of inspiration.
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