{"id":36769,"date":"2025-09-04T16:51:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36769"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:50:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:50:03","slug":"terry-fox-run-organizers-keep-hope-alive-at-aurora-arboretum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/terry-fox-run-organizers-keep-hope-alive-at-aurora-arboretum\/","title":{"rendered":"Terry Fox Run organizers keep hope alive at Aurora Arboretum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seana O\u2019Bireck didn\u2019t hesitate when she was asked to help organize this year\u2019s Terry Fox Run in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her father, John, was a driving force for local healthcare as one of the founders of Mardi Gras for Southlake, an annual event which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Southlake Regional Health Centre for more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had John, who lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2023, still have been with us, his daughter says he would have been among the first to answer the call to lend a hand to the Terry Fox Foundation. So, when Seana got the call, she knew she had to answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTerry Fox is a great Canadian figure and I think everybody everywhere is touched by cancer somehow,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was one of those situations that if it was my dad who had been asked, he would step, up, so you\u2019ve got to do that kind of stuff and fill those roles because volunteers are always needed and necessary \u2013 and fundraising, of course, is important as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seana was asked to join in organizing this year\u2019s Terry Fox event by long-time local organizer Karen Fulbrook. Fulbrook and O\u2019Bireck are both active volunteers with the Aurora Community Arboretum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s run will once again take place at the popular Aurora green space on September 14. Registration begins at 8 a.m. behind at the Run\u2019s start point, the Arboretum entrance behind the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre on John West Way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different routes for those looking for runs and walks with varying lengths have been plotted out to offer two different Arboretum experiences to participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizers behind this year\u2019s Run hope to raise $12,500 on the day of the run, a figure which will come together with funds raised at similar events held in more than 600 communities across Canada the same day, with all proceeds bringing millions of dollars to the Terry Fox Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Terry Fox Run takes place each year across Canada in memory of Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope, which began St. John\u2019s, NL, in April of 1980, before he was forced to call off the Run in Thunder Bay on September 1 the same year when his cancer returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year marks the 45th<\/sup> anniversary of the Marathon of Hope and on Monday, September 1, the anniversary of the Marathon\u2019s end \u2013 and the anniversary of Canadians from coast-to-coast helping to carry on from where Fox\u2019s herculean efforts had to leave off \u2013 Fox\u2019s sister and brother, Judith and Fred, led supporters on a hike through Sleeping Giant Provincial Park near Thunder Bay to pay \u201ctribute to Terry\u2019s determination and his relentless optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locally, O\u2019Bireck says they are always encouraging new registrations and notes the need for event day volunteers to help with set-up and registration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the Run itself, O\u2019Bireck says the start will include coffee and refreshments, live music, a Zumba-style warm up, and routes of 2 km and 5 km throughout the arboretum space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a gorgeous walk through the Arboretum, which is a hidden gem for Aurora that a lot of people, even now, still don\u2019t know that it exists,\u201d she says, noting the new children\u2019s book, \u201cT Is For Terry\u201d, has introduced a whole new generation to Fox and his enduring impact on Canada. \u201cCome on out, join us, and register online \u2013 registering online is helpful because it then helps bring ease to the morning and everyone can get started on time!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on this year\u2019s Terry Fox Run in Aurora, including how to register and raise funds, visit run.terryfox.ca\/92771.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 14 event marks 45th anniversary of Marathon of Hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-04-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9z3","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 04:16:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36771,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36769\/revisions\/36771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}