Members of the Red Deer Terry Fox Run organizing committee outside the south Canadian Tire in Red Deer on Sunday, Sept. 19. (Lori Hutchings)

By Jordan Davidson (Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow)

virtual event again

Terry Fox Run raises $8,000 locally through virtual event

Oct 1, 2021 | 12:46 PM

The 41^st annual Terry Fox Run in Red Deer might go down as one of the most challenging years in the charity’s history.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the event to once again be held virtually, similar to the format used in 2020.

Still, organizers of the Red Deer Terry Fox Run committee still set up shop at the south Canadian Tire location to sell t-shirts, as well as collect donations and pledge sheets.

Although over-all participation in the event was down from years past, officials say they still managed to raise close to $8,000 for cancer research.

Lori Hutchings, one of the organizers of the Red Deer Terry Fox Run, says it was more challenging than 2020, because last year they were able to leverage the 40^th anniversary of the Run to encourage more donations.

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“The week before the actually run, we held a drive-through bottle drive to raise funds and try to make up for some of the lost revenue from doing the face-to-face run. We raised a little bit less than we raised in recent years but we are happy with any amount at all that we can contribute to the Terry Fox Foundation for research.”

Hutchings says they are already looking forward to next year, which they hope will be back to an in-person event.

This years’ slogan, “One Day, Your Way”, is the same as last year as participants were encouraged to get out and walk, run, or bike anywhere they’ wanted. They were not required to do 10 kms which is how they’ve done the walk in years past when it was allowed in-person.

To date, over $850 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry’s name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.