Daryl Zelinski s focused on building momentum at the 2004 St. Albert Terry Fox Run, set for this Sunday, Sept. 15.
“I'm 55, and I remember Terry Fox, he was an inspiration,” he said Thursday. “He was unbelievable. And then he didn't have social media back then, so you just watched it on your couple stations and yeah, it was incredible.”
The pandemic was hard on fundraisers and the St. Albert run was not immune, with participation dwindling to just a handful of pledge-getters before restrictions were lifted. But after a strong showing of 90 runners who raised almost $10,000 last year, Zelinski is hoping a crowd of up to 200 will help the charity crest $15,000 in 2024.
“We got to get this going again,” Zelinski said to himself, and anyone else who would listen. “St. Albert's a great community, so my buddy and I, we jumped on board last year.”
St. Albert is one of nearly 600 communities that will be raising money for cancer research this weekend. The theme for this year’s run is No Matter What. T-shirts bearing the slogan against an iconic image of Fox will be for sale on site for $25.
Zelinski hopes he gets 200 people no matter what Sunday: 9 a.m. registration, 10 a.m. run. The five-kilometre run along the Sturgeon River starts and ends at Lions Park.
“The nice thing about it is they can run, they can ride their bike, they can do roller blades, they can walk it,” he said. “We'll have some water and some granola bars. And you know, there's ribbons and a few giveaways.”
There were about 70 people registered to run as of Thursday evening.
Donations help the Terry Fox Foundation “back bold, innovative cancer research across Canada, striving to enhance diagnosis, treatment options, and the quality of life for those battling cancer.”
The legacy of Terry Fox is $850 million in such fundraising since 1980. The mop-topped 21-year-old from Port Coquitlam, B.C. started it all, falling short of his goal of running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, but meeting his target of raising $1 for every Canadian (the population was about 24 million in 1980) before his death on June 28, 1981.
“He’s one of the most inspirational Canadians of all time,” Zelinski said. “He's been gone for 43 years now and he's still inspiring people all around the world to donate and just run for cancer research,” Zelinski said. “If we can extend someone's life and give them a better quality of life, it's a great story.”
