I have an old fortune cookie slip taped inside the cover of one of my many writing journals that reads: Let the opportunities come to you. Now, when I think of Terry Fox, opportunity isn’t the first word that comes to mind. Resilience, heroism, kindness seem more fitting. But stories of opportunities that opened up for other people because of their admiration for Terry Fox is a theme that runs through my adult life.
Oddly, I was backpacking overseas the entire time he ran his Marathon of Hope 45 years ago and was completely unaware of Terry Fox until I returned home just days after he passed. I’ve written a column about this before, because it was a profound moment to be immediately filled with a deep level of awe, compassion and respect that had grown over time for everyone else. But grow it did and today – perhaps even more than ever before – Canadians consider Terry Fox a national treasure.
It was a few months ago that the corporate communications manager with the Alberta Retired Teachers Association (ARTA) contacted me about a big campaign they were planning which would feature Canadian heroes – and they wanted to launch it with a tribute to Terry Fox. Made absolute sense to me and I was so pleased that they wanted to adapt their tribute from a feature I had written for the Golden Nuggets section of my website. It profiled two retired teachers in Innisfail and their retired teaching spouses who have worked tirelessly together to keep the annual Terry Fox Run going in their community all these years. To top it all off, the ARTA staff received unanimous approval from their board to turn this tribute into a four-page graphic novel that would serve as the main pullout of their magazine’s back-to-school issue. They inquired, “Could I make a series of storyboards to inform the artist who would work on the piece?” You bet, I said, wondering what they meant. I had, long ago, created storyboards alongside a friend when we thought we should start a small diaper cleaning service called Snappy Nappies. At the time, we were clearly in need of money and perhaps a little influenced by a beer. But I took all the lessons I learned from that snappy experience and created storyboards to help direct the snippet of story that could fit onto four pages. Thing is, I created 57 of the boards!
What could I possibly leave out of a story that still hums through popular culture with a rigour unmatched by the achievements of virtually any other Canadian? How could I share the many tales of inspiration and success I’ve heard from so many people who had watched him plod on day after day, week after week, on television newscasts that quickly became prominent headlines with growing crowds of emotional and adoring fans. I was told by a former colleague that he was a “lazy teenager when I saw Terry Fox for the first time and I jumped off the couch to follow his lead and haven’t stopped running since.” This teacher has been a successful phys ed teacher and coach for many years. He did that – Terry Fox made people better versions of themselves.
So I sent all 57 storyboards to ARTA and they created a unique tribute to launch their Hero Series. It captures the emotion and inspiration, the sorrow and hope – and it was designed by people who weren’t even alive when Terry Fox ran among us. Terry Fox is our hero. There is no better teacher to kick off the school year for 250,000 Alberta educators who are devoted to sharing messages of hope and resilience to another generation.