Terry Fox featured on brand new $1 Canadian coin.
On Monday March 14th the Royal Canadian Mint celebrated the legacy of Terry Fox by honouring him as the first Canadian to be featured on a commemorative circulation coin.
It was on April 12th, 1980 that Terry Fox began his Marathon of
Hope, a personal goal to run across Canada, and a personal goal to
raise the equivalent of $1 for every Canadian, $25 Million
dollars. The coin will begin circulating on April 4th, just in
time for the 25th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope.
“We are
hopeful 30 million Canadians will pay tribute to Terry in this
anniversary year by raising the equivalent of one “Terry” dollar from
each and every citizen.” said Darrell Fox, Terry's brother and National
Director of the Terry Fox Foundation.
Todd
Wong and Darrell Fox, Terry's brother and Terry Fox Foundation National
Director, standing beside a cardboard display of the $1 “Terry” coin. –
photo Deb Martin.
The coin unveiling was a wonderful
ceremony in the SFU Theatre. There were performances by Vancouver
Children's Choir. The platform party included Honourabel John
McCallum M.P., as Minister of Revenue and Minister Responsible for the
Royal Canadian Mint; President David C. Dinwall for the Royal Canadian
Mint, and Terry's parents – Betty and Rolly Fox.
The best
speeches were made by Betty Fox and engraver Stan Witten. Betty
said that for all the money spent on creating the coin, Terry would
have preferred that it all went instead to finding a cure for
cancer. Stan commented about how inspired he had been by Terry's
Marathon of Hope, and tried to capture the emotion and Terry's courage
with the windswept trees in the engraving.
After the ceremony, a
coin exchange was held. People were encouraged to exhange a
dollar for the Terry Fox coin, and then donate a second dollar for the
Terry Fox Foundation. These were the first time coins were being
made available for the public, as circulation of the coin will not go
into effect until April 4th, 2005.
Vikram,
Betty Fox, and me – Todd Wong: Vikram and I are both Terry's Team
members. I first met Vikram at a Terry Fox Run in North Delta,
and when he told me was too was a cancer survivor I invited him to
become a Terry's Team member. – photo Deb MartinI was fortunate to be
invited to the coin unveiling, held at Simon Fraser University,
where Terry attended Kinesiology classes. It was while he played
basketball on the Varsity team that his cancer was discovered.
Even after Terry's leg was amputated due to the bone cancer, he
continued to be a manager for the Jr Varsity team. Terry loved
SFU. He was determined to make the basketball team, displacing
atheletes on scholarship. He trained for the Marathon of Hope at
SFU, by going up the long uphill road both by running, and in
wheelchair. He organized fundraiser dances in the
gymnasium. It's ironic that in 1989, while I was similarly
attending classes at SFU, that's when my own life-threatening cancer
was discovered..
My personal connection with the Terry Fox Run
began in 1993, when Darrell Fox, then director of the BC Yukon Division
called me on the telephone after hearing me speak about Terry Fox on
the Rafe Mair show on CKNW Radio. Simon Fraser University had
just awarded me the SFU Terry Fox Gold Medal given “in recognition of courage in adversity and dedication to society.”
Darrell
invited me to become a Terry's Team member, cancer survivors who serve
as living examples that cancer research has helped to make a
difference. Darrell also encouraged me to start a Terry Fox Run
at SFU in 1993, sharing with me the family's disappointment that there
was currently no Terry Fox Run at SFU.
“It just takes one
person,” he said to me, “look at what Terry accomplished.”
Inspired by Darrell's pep talk, I went to talk to Lorne Davies,
then SFU Director of Athletics, then came back with the news.
“Sorry
Darrell, there isn't going to be a Terry Fox Run at SFU in 1993, but
there will be in 1994,” I reported to Darrell. “Plus there will be a
very special inaugural Terry Fox Day,” and I suggested to him that we create a trophy case for the SFU t-shirt that he still had of Terry's.
Since
1993, I have spoken each year at elementary schools and run sites
throughout the Greater Vancouver, Kelowna BC in 2001, and 2002, and
Beijing, China in 1993.
Here is a story that I wrote in the SFU student Newspaper The PEAK,
about my experiences of surviving the near-fatal cancer tumor and
helping to create the t SFU, which was resurrected in 2001 with the
unveiling of a 9 1/2 foot stature by scuptor Steven Harman. SFU Terry Fox Day
is now an annual event to both honour one of Canada's greatest heroes,
inspire SFU students, and bring the SFU community together to honour
one of their own.
It has truly been a blessing to meet both the
Fox family, and the friends that Terry made, and to hear their stories
about how Terry Fox made a difference to their lives. To help
celebrate the 25th anniversary of Terry's Marathon of Hope, I will be
writing about my experiences as a Terry's Team member. If you
would like to share your memories of Terry that could be selected for
broadcast on CBC Radio and/or Television or for publication in
“Memories of Terry: Canada's National Scrapbook” by Canadian author
Douglas Coupland – then please contact www.cbc.ca/terryfox.
Rick
Hansen and me. Rick was the guy who first invited Terry Fox to play
wheelchair basketball and they became fast friends, even wheelchairing
up the long steep roads to SFU to shoot baskets in the gym. I
first met Rick at a press conference for the Terry Fox Run in 1993,
Rick is also a recipient of the Terry Fox Gold Medal from SFU. -photo
Deb Martin.
This
statue of Terry Fox, by sculptor Stephen Harman, was unveiled in 2001
and is placed in the inner courtyard of the Academic Quadrangle. I
helped to start the very first Terry Fox Day at SFU in 1994. A
trophy case containing bronzed photos and an SFU “1000 Mile Club”
t-shirt that Terry loved are featured – photo Deb Martin