While the Terry Fox Run is set for Sunday (Sept. 15), residents of Lakeside Gardens Retirement Community will be taking part in their own cancer research fundraiser.
The inaugural Silver Fox Walk will take place on Saturday (Sept. 14) at 11 a.m. at the Wellesley Avenue complex and according to Lakeside Gardens’ recreation director Vicki Podetz, it will be less strenuous.
“It won’t be a long walk, it’s more of a symbolic walk than anything because the average age of our residents is about 85,” Podetz said. “This is not a competition to see how many kilometres we walk or anything like that.”
The retirement community will be accepting pledges as a whole, as opposed to residents seeking individual pledges, but the proceeds will still go to the Terry Fox Foundation for cancer research and Podetz estimates 10 to 20 people will be taking part.
Thelma Young, who has been a resident at the community for five years, said the event is important – as the old axiom goes, everybody knows somebody who has had cancer.
“I’m doing it because I like to see people active,” Young said.
She remembers well when Terry Fox embarked on his Marathon of Hope in April of 1980.
“That was really something, the way [he] did it, right across Canada,” said Young. “I thought he did really well, I mean gosh, to do that, it would take a lot of energy and thought, love for others – it’s pretty hard.”
“We know the millions of dollars that the Terry Fox Foundation has raised for cancer research and that’s really gone a long way and of course, the legacy of Terry Fox has been something that people have grabbed on to in Canada,” said Podetz.
“We’re excited about doing it. It’s because it is our first time of doing it and we’re just looking forward to it and having an impact in our community and you’re never too old to do that sort of stuff,” she said.