Iconic Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist Terry Fox once said that running 26 miles was his daily minimum. What bare minimum are you willing to do, to ensure that North Cowichan's annual Terry Fox Run gets off on the right foot?
Mark Swannell, who hails from Manchester and has been a Cowichan Valley resident for the last seven years, celebrates his fourth year as the organizer for the annual Terry Fox Run. It will be held this year on Sept. 15, and Swannell is putting a call out to community members as well as past participants to see if anyone would be willing to join this year's team of volunteers to ensure it has one of its most successful years yet.
"I'm really excited to be celebrating my fourth year as organizer but I'm also aware that in order for this event to become even bigger we need more community engagement especially in the months running up to the event," said Swannell.
Evans Park will once again be the venue for this year's event with registration opening at 9 a.m., and community members putting their best foot forward for Terry at 10 a.m. While Swannell says that the amount of helping hands he had at last year's event was perfect, he is hoping to have more leading up to the event. He is currently looking for like minded people to assist with the coordination of additional fundraising events prior to the run, reaching out to local businesses for sponsorship, and local grocery stores to see who can donate refreshments as well as contacting local media to help promote the event.
"I am also hoping to have someone with an expertise in using social media to help grow our online presence," said Swannell.
Those willing to step up and make this year's Terry Fox Run the best North Cowichan, and Duncan has seen yet can email Mark at [email protected]. Once he has a list of eager volunteers he will arrange a meeting to best schedule a successful timeline leading up to this year's event.
"The Terry Fox Run is at the forefront of many Canadian Communities and I believe that this year's event, with more publicity and community engagement, can become one of the main fundraising events of the year here in the Cowichan Valley," said Swannell. "My aim is to raise one dollar for every resident in the Cowichan Valley, but we can only do this with the help of an organizing committee.
