{"id":3600,"date":"2010-10-07T19:23:55","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T23:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forgetful.ca\/?p=3600"},"modified":"2010-10-07T19:23:55","modified_gmt":"2010-10-07T23:23:55","slug":"day-146-small-kids-big-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/?p=3600","title":{"rendered":"Day 146 – Small kids, big lessons."},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was the Terry Fox Run at Jaia’s school. \u00a0Everyone went out at 1:00 pm to walk\/run to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation, even the teeny kindergardeners who held on to a rope and trudged along together around the course.<\/p>\n

I was 5 years old when Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean as he began his quest to run across Canada to raise money to fight cancer. \u00a0I did not know then how important this man would be nor did I realize how much his efforts would, so many years later, come to touch me through the experiences of so many of the people in my life.<\/p>\n

Over the last couple of years I have seen the destruction that this disease can cause. \u00a0I have looked cancer in the face as it has robbed me of family and friends. \u00a0People I loved and people that I miss dearly. \u00a0Every. Single. Day.<\/p>\n

Throughout his run from Newfoundland to Thunder \u00a0Bay, when he was forced to stop after finding out that the cancer had spread to his lungs, he asked Canadians to donate one dollar. \u00a0One single dollar to his cause. \u00a0And they did. \u00a0Terry Fox managed to raise 24 million dollars before his death in 1981. \u00a0The legacy that grew from the Marathon of Hope almost 30 years ago has now raised over 500 million dollars in the fight against cancer.<\/p>\n

Terry Fox is a hero.<\/p>\n

When I told Jaia that she’d be walking in the Terry Fox Run with her school, she was curious. \u00a0So we explained who he was and why he was so important. \u00a0We cued up a couple of clips on YouTube, which she watched with wide eyes. \u00a0Seeing him made her want to take part. \u00a0She was proud to bring in her own tooney and deposit it in the bag with the rest of the money.<\/p>\n

Very coincidentally, the day before the run, we found ourselves downtown and in front on the Parliament buildings – and also in front of the Terry Fox statue. \u00a0Jaia looked up at it like it was larger than life. \u00a0She studied his leg and got up close to it to touch it, as if that might help it make a little more sense to her, a three year old.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Going from a kid who adores Clifford the Big Red Dog and all things princess, to one who, over the last couple of days, is beginning to comprehend the magnitude of what a man with one leg accomplished so many years ago speaks volumes to the influence that Terry Fox still has on each and every Canadian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was the Terry Fox Run at Jaia’s school. \u00a0Everyone went out at 1:00 pm to walk\/run to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation, even the teeny kindergardeners who held on to a rope and trudged along together around the course. I was 5 years old when Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[5,26,36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}