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I must admit that one of the reasons I've been reluctant to be involved in charity runs in the past is that I feel very shy about asking other people for money. Still, I guess if I'm going to walk 10 km. for charity I would be best to try to raise some money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
Therefore, if anyone out there is interested, I am looking for sponsors for my walk on September 14th. There are a few of ways to sponsor me.
1) I am signed up on-line at the official Terry Fox Run site now. It is possible to sponsor me on-line. Follow this link: http://www.terryfoxrun.org/ENRunner/def
2) I will be carrying a sponsor sheet with me all through Torcon (the Science Fiction WorldCon in Toronto next weekend). If you know you will be seeing me at the convention and would like to sponsor me, please talk to me anytime during the con.
3) If neither of these options work for you and you'd still like to sponsor me, please drop me a note here and I will try to contact you in some other way.
I look forward to my first charity walk with trepidation and excitement. Can't think of a more worthy cause then Terry Fox and the Canadian Cancer Society to be taking this new step.
More updates as the walk gets closer.
Comments
I don't know who Terry Fox is, though.
He lost his leg to bone cancer at the age of 18 and decided to start a run across Canada on an artificial leg to raise money and awareness for cancer research in 1980. His "Marathon of Hope" began in Newfoundland with almost no press, but as he continued across the country the interest in his story grew until it became a national phenomenon. His run stopped just outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario, when his cancer came back and kept him from running any further. He vowed to finish the run, but he was unable to and he died the following summer.
Canadians were inspired and saddened by his story. The first "Marathon of Hope" telethon inspired by Terry's run raised millions of dollars. I remember watching it in university. Since then the Terry Fox Run for cancer has been an annual event in Canada (and 60 other countries around the world, research tells me) every September. Dozens, probably hundreds, of runs are scheduled across the country on the same day every year (September 14th this year). It's become part of our national tradition.
There's a statue of Terry Fox now on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. You can find a photo of it here: http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/attract