Terry Fox Run & Calgary Corn Fun

Nearly every day since school started, I have asked Ben what he did in gym class that day.  His answer was always the same..."we ran for Terry Fox".  All that hard work paid off on Thursday, September 26th...the Terry Fox National School Run Day.  Here's a little history lesson on this famous Canadian...

Terry Fox was 18 years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer and forced to have his right leg amputated above the knee.  While he was in the hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.  He called his journey the Marathon of Hope.  After 18 months of preparation, Terry started his run in Newfoundland on April 12, 1980.  There was little attention at first, and then enthusiasm grew and so did the donations.  He ran close to 26 miles each day, and then on September 1, after 143 days and 3,339 miles, Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs.  All of Canada was stunned and saddened when Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22.  To date, over $600 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name through this annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world. 

What an inspiring story.  It's such a tragedy that Terry passed away at such a young age, but what an amazing example of how one person really can make a difference!  So on September 26th, Nathalie and I joined Ben at school for the Terry Fox run with our donations.  A very cool experience to witness so many families uniting for such a worthy cause...

That Sunday, we woke to this unbelievably gorgeous sky.  We went to church, and then decided that we would enjoy a fall day at the Calgary Corn Maze.  You'll notice the winter coats and hats...it was freezing when we first got there!!  But, that didn't slow us down from enjoying the playground and winding our way through the junior corn maze.  The kids loved it...Ben was the leader, naturally, and Nathalie followed him obediently, giggling the whole time.    

In true Calgary fashion, by the time we finished with the maze, the sun had peeked out and it was then a beautiful fall day.  We picked out some carving pumpkins and sugar pumpkins for pie, decorated some baby pumpkins, and then called it a day.  A great family day and a great way to start my favorite season.