By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
With donations still coming in, Sunday’s Terry Fox Runs in Cobourg and Port Hope have raised close to $110,000.
In Port Hope, Paul Appleman reports $70,000 from 75 participants and 400 on-line donors. He called it his best year ever “by far.”
Appleman has a 44-year record chairing the Port Hope run, having stepped forward for the duty the very first year – back in the day when you got your pledge going door to door. Now, with on-line pledges and virtual participation, you can take your own walk on your own time and send in the pledges. In fact, this year’s theme was No Matter What.
The money is not all there on the day of the walk, Appleman said – people will continue to donate after the walk, probably through the first week in October.
“I just got a donation of $50 from a friend this morning,” he added.
Appleman’s wife Margaret is his long-time co-chair and, though she plans to continue to be part of things, she’s been handing over the reins to Heather Liotti.
One secret of their extraordinary success this year is teams that have formed up and delivered a strong showing.
“Friends, neighbours, relatives, co-workers,” Appleman said.
“The last two years, we’ve had Port Hope United Church (as a team). My brother John organized a team for my mom,” he added, referring to the Oma Appleman team that has a large number of family members to draw from.
“We have a new team this year called Porthopia – the website says they’ve raised $6,500-plus.”
The other teams are Buttarbrook, Team Deacon, Team Elliott and Fortress. That last team is named after the Scarborough company co-chair Liotti works for. They had a donation-matching arrangement in place for a Terry Fox Run in another community before but, when that community discontinued the event, they shifted their support to Port Hope. With their matching every donation made to the Fortress team, they are responsible for the majority of the total.
Appleman is really sold on the team approach, and will try to keep it going.
Another long-serving Terry Fox Run chair was recognized in Cobourg. Jen Powles (who co-chairs the event with husband Colin) said they kicked off their first year as chair with a tribute to Fred Stegmayer, who is retiring after 28 years at the helm. The tribute included a letter from the Terry Fox Foundation, read out by Powles to the crowd who had gathered – a crowd that included Stegmayer’s daughter and son-in-law.
Characterizing Stegmayer as “a man whom all of us at the Terry Fox Foundation have come to love, admire and respect,” the letter added that “You exemplify all that Terry Fox stood for – compassion, vision and dedication. Your efforts have made our world a better place.”
“It was a great way to recognize a tremendous contribution,” Powles said.
Pictures have been posted on the Cobourg Terry Fox Run Facebook page, and the count is $38,000 just now. And in case people have forgotten, they can still make donations on the Cobourg run site – not just now, she said, but basically any time. She is hoping they can hit the $40,000 mark, as Stegmayer did last year.
There were about 140 participants and volunteers this year, and a lot of the volunteers are long-timers.
“This volunteer crew have been coming out for years and years and years – it’s like homecoming week for them. They certainly do it out of the love and appreciation for Fred, and we are hopeful they will stick around for the next decade or two and help us,” she said.
“The reality is, we all do know someone who is suffering or being challenged by cancer. I think that is the one common take-away – everyone who was there has a story about, more often, someone who is still alive because of the advances in treatment, and that is so heartening – and what makes it so necessary to have the Terry Fox Run for a new generation.”
