Heywood Academies at the 2026 Terry Fox Run

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On September 20, some of our staff and students ran the Terry Fox Run together, and a few of us donated to the Terry Fox Foundation as well. I wanted to write about why this one actually matters to me, beyond just showing up for a good cause.

Why This Run Matters to Me

A lot of the students we work with in Victoria are international students, and Victoria in general draws people from all over the world. If you didn't grow up in Canada, there's a good chance you've never heard of Terry Fox, and there's no reason you would have.

I grew up on Vancouver Island, and the Terry Fox Run was part of school every single year, elementary, middle, and high school. We'd run, raise money, and there was always an assembly in the gym about who Terry Fox was and what he did. It's one of those things that's just baked into growing up Canadian, and I don't think I fully appreciated that until I started meeting students who'd never encountered it at all.

Running it this year with students from other countries wasn't just about the exercise or the fundraising. It was a genuinely nice way to share a piece of Canadian culture with people who've moved here, and to explain why so many of us have a soft spot for this particular run.

Running With Camosun's Running Club

We also connected with the Camosun College Running Club for this one, and around ten of their runners joined us. I ended up as the run leader for that group, which was a fun role to step into. It was a good excuse to get some Camosun students out, moving, and contributing to something bigger than a single class or campus.

What We Raised

Rather than start our own fundraising page, our group joined an existing team. A friend of mine had set that team up in memory of someone who passed away from cancer, and it wasn't just us on it, plenty of other people had already joined and donated before we did. Between everyone on that team, it raised $1,880 for the Terry Fox Foundation. I want to be clear that this wasn't all Heywood Academies' doing. Some of our staff donated individually and we're proud to have been part of that total, but the number reflects the whole team, not just us.

Thanks to Everyone Who Came Out

Thanks to the staff and students who ran with us, to the Camosun Running Club for joining in, and to everyone on the team who donated. If you're a student here and this is the first time you're hearing about Terry Fox, it's worth reading up on. It's a genuinely meaningful piece of the community you're now a part of.

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