“Every dollar raised is closer to a cure,” said Petrolia Terry Fox Run Organizer Steve McGrail, and the local event tallied $28,079 as of Feb. 10 to go towards cancer research.

McGrail said this is the largest total Petrolia has raised since he began organizing the annual run in 2011. Half of what has been raised has been through donations collected online at $14,071. He said with the Terry Fox Run going virtual during the Covid-19 pandemic, people are more comfortable with donating and pledging online.

There have also been a few local families who have recently been affected by cancer. They had big support groups of participants and donors who help boost the pledge totals. There were also some donors who are originally from Petrolia but have relocated. They have still earmarked their pledges to the Petrolia Terry Fox Run.

“It is nice our community totals are trending upwards, but from year to year, totals fluctuate,” said McGrail. There were 170 participants in the Terry Fox Run on Sept. 18, with McGrail indicating at the time already $25,000 had been raised to date. He was still waiting for the schools to do their own Terry Fox Run and those totals would be added. A silent auction was also being conducted and Terry Fox t-shirts being sold bringing further money into the cause.

This was the first time there have been an in-person event after two years of virtual events brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Blake Ellis, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Independent