The call has been answered.
For a while, it looked as though, for the first time in 15 years, there would be no Terry Fox run in the City of Langley this September.
Early in June, Donna White, the provincial director of the Terry Fox Foundation for B.C./Yukon, issued a plea for a volunteer organizer, to ensure that the local fundraiser would get off the ground this year.
Losing an event that, during the past decade and a half, has raised more than $61,000 for cancer research would be bad enough, said White.
The fact this year marks the 35th anniversary of the run celebrating Fox’s own Marathon of Hope, would make the loss that much more disappointing.
Enter Marg McGuire-Grout.
Browsing through the local paper over coffee one morning in June, McGuire-Grout, a Langley woman whose work background is in physical fitness, saw White’s plea and decided to give her a call.
She woke up the next day in a cold sweat, wondering what she got her self into, she confessed with a laugh.
But McGuire-Grout has hit the ground running, and already, she and the rest of the committee are hard at work, organizing the Sept. 20 event, which begins and ends in Douglas Park.
Like most events of any scope, the Langley City Terry Fox Run will need a small army of volunteers to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day.
She’s looking for route marshals, people to do traffic control, to set up and tear down the route, to help with registration and work the concession. At least, those are the jobs she can think of off the top of her head.
With less than two months to go until run day, McGuire-Grout and her team have lots on their plate, but when it comes to ensuring Terry’s legacy will continue to be honoured in the City of Langley, it’s great to see that they’re off to a running start.
Anyone who would like to add their name to the list of volunteers is invited to contact McGuire-Grout at 604-530-2432 or by email at mmcguiregrout@yahoo.com.
