Jim Mason
Columns
September 18, 2008 12:11 AM
By: Jim Mason
Often, it takes an outsider to put things into perspective.
To point out the obvious.
York Region Media Group photographer Susie Kocherscheidt did it for me Sunday.
She was shooting the Terry Fox Run at the Stouffville Arena and track complex, taking the photos that will appear in Saturday’s Sun-Tribune.
“This is the best,” she said.
Bicycles crowded the starting line and small children and serious runners alike waited their turns to get on the track and head onto the streets.
Susie knows. Stouffville’s was her third Terry Fox Run photography assignment of the day and one of many she has shot during her career.
The numbers are there to back her up. This year’s total will top $80,000.
The run in Thunder Bay, where Terry is immortalized in a statue marking the end of his Marathon of Hope, raised $16,000. Stouffville has a third of Thunder Bay’s population.
Stouffville’s event was the 10th biggest money maker of all Terry Fox Runs across Ontario in 2007.
This place is growing, but it’s far from the tenth largest community in this province. Per capita, we must be near the top.
Perhaps more importantly, the Stouffville run draws hundreds of people every year. Families, co-workers, sports teammates and service club members rally together in the fight against cancer in Terry’s name.
Whitchurch-Stouffville is just right for the Terry Fox Run. Still small enough to care, it’s big enough to draw a crowd.
In a show of gratitude, the community has been graced with visits by Terry’s parents and a brother.
And on the second Sunday of September, like clockwork, it happens all over again.
It’s refreshing. It’s Whitchurch-Stouffville. And, like Susie, said, it is the best. Or close to it.
Jim Mason is editor of The Sun-Tribune.