On the same morning local residents were participating in the Terry Fox Run, the memory of Grace Bowen was being honoured at the Cobourg Community Centre.
Grace died at the age of nine in 2015 following a battle with osteosarcoma, the same cancer that claimed the life of Terry Fox in 1981.
She played hockey for the West Northumberland Wild and now her name is entrenched at the CCC as the Pond Arena was officially re-named the Grace Bowen Arena on Sunday, September 14, 2025.
Grace’s family was in attendance, including her parents Greg and Andrea, sister MacKenzie, staff from Toronto’s Sick Kids hospital where Grace was a patient, actor Ryan Reynolds and dignitaries.
Reynolds made a delegation virtually at Cobourg council’s Community Services, Protection and Economic Development standing committee meeting in April about renaming the Pond rink in honour of Grace and were joined by the Bowens who were in attendance.
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland spoke about Grace remembering her tenacity, passion for life and the game of hockey.
“Her kind and caring nature for others, and her relentlessness in everything that she did. She embodied the very meaning of her name – Grace.”
“Some people can live a lifetime and not really live. But in just nine years, Grace accomplished so much and touched so many lives. Grace changed the lives of those that she spent time with — her family, her friends, her teammates and her Sick Kids family. And her story has continued to be told, and to inspire so many.
At Sunday’s ceremony, Greg Bowen said Reynolds has been a friend to the family for 11 years.
“You already know I can’t thank you enough,” he said. “I wish you knew when you go and see the families at Sick Kids what it does for those parents to see their sick little one, whether it’s cancer or not cancer – if they’re there, they’re sick – and when their parents see their child smile because you’ve either walked in the room, dropped an F-bomb, whatever it is, it’s unbelievable.”
Bowen also told Reynolds, “I can’t believe you’re here today. You made it a priority to be here in our beautiful little town.”
Reynolds said when he meets sick children, the parents give the child everything they have, but then “you see their faces and they have nothing left for themselves.”
“A lot of the work I do is not just for a kid who inexplicably leaving this world, but it’s for the parents who are escorting them out. It’s something I’ll never really fully understand the way the Bowen family does, but some of that curiosity is what brought us here today.”
Reynolds recalled Bowen telling him Grace played hockey at the Pond Arena at the CCC and he responded with wonder why it wasn’t called the Grace Bowen Arena.
“I just asked the question…and then I worried there was some war hero named Staff Sergeant Randy Pond who gave his everything for our country and lost in battlefield, but nope just pond, just a body of water,” Reynolds quipped, drawing laughter from the crowd.
When Bowen spoke at the committee meeting in April, he said the biggest fear for people losing a child is you’ll never hear someone mention their name again.
Now there is the Grace Bowen Arena.
Members of the community were invited to view a livesteam of the ceremony on the scoreclock in the neighbouring Bowl Arena.
Festivities on Sunday also include a scrimmage featuring Grace’s teammates and a free community skate.
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland’s remarks
Good morning, everyone.
On behalf of the Town of Cobourg, it’s truly my honour to bring greetings and extend a warm welcome to all of you gathered here this morning at the Cobourg Community Centre.
I would especially like to welcome the Bowen family. While I never had the chance to meet Grace, I did meet her sister, Kenzie, about eight years ago, when I was still new to the Town and she worked at the downtown grocery store I owned.
Today is a very special day, for the Bowen family, and our entire community.
Today we honour the legacy of nine-year old Grace Bowen, in the place that she loved and where she played her favourite sport — hockey.
Today we remember her tenacity, her passion for life and the game of hockey, her kind and caring nature for others, and her relentlessness in everything that she did. She embodied the very meaning of her name – Grace.
Some people can live a lifetime and not really live. But in just nine years, Grace accomplished so much and touched so many lives. Grace changed the lives of those that she spent time with — her family, her friends, her teammates and her Sick Kids family. And her story has continued to be told, and to inspire so many.
I will never forget the words of her dad, Greg, when he spoke at our Council Standing Committee meeting in April. He said that as a parent “the biggest fear is that you will never hear someone else say your child’s name again.”
As a parent myself, I can understand that fear.
From today forward Grace’s name will forever be said aloud. Her name is honoured in Cobourg on the walls of the Grace Bowen Arena, in the place that she loved.
Not only has Grace’s name been memorialized, but her own signature has too on the signage you see today. Her silhouette is on the doors to the arena. Everyone who steps into the arena will see Grace’s silhouette forever skating on the ice. And it is beautiful.
The Cobourg Community Centre is more than just another municipal building. It is a place of connection, laughter, safety and belonging. And now, the name of this arena itself, speaks to telling the stories that bring us together.
It’s not lost on me that today – on Sunday, September 14th – tens of thousands of Canadians are running across this country to raise money for cancer research in the Terry Fox Run, honouring Terry’s 1980 run in the Marathon of Hope to raise money for cancer research. Terry Fox, like Grace, had osteosarcoma. And today we honour Grace. I don’t think that we could have picked a better day to hold this event.
Grace will be forever held dear in Cobourg
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
