Nearly 36 years after the death of Terry Fox, 12 notable Canadians are honouring the Marathon of Hope athlete, whose cross-country run to raise money for cancer research made him a national hero.
“He truly is one of the greatest Canadians ever and a wonderful inspiration to every Canadian coast to coast,” says Wayne Gretzky in a special video tribute titled Welcome Home Terry.
The retired NHL-er fondly recalls meeting Fox and his family at their home in Port Coquitlam. Gretzky gave Fox a No. 99 sweater that will be on display at the Fairmont Empress Hotel this week.
Gretzky’s commentary bookends the two-minute tribute designed to draw attention to Terry Fox: Running to the Heart of Canada, the travelling exhibit that opens Wednesday at the Royal B.C. Museum.
David Schneider, a vice-president at National Bank and a former Royal B.C. Museum Foundation board member, came up with the idea for the video, which will be officially unveiled Tuesday.
“I told [museum CEO Jack Lohman] that … it’s one of those things people don’t say no to,” said Schneider, who collaborated with Bill Vigars on the video.
Local businessman and philanthropist Rob Reid was the “driving force” getting him and Schneider together, Vigars said, adding that Reid has been instrumental in increasing visibility for the museum exhibit.
Vigars, who was Fox’s close friend and public relations director, used his industry connections to start lining up talent six weeks ago. “I wanted a cross-section of people who most everyone would recognize immediately,” said Vigars, whose first call was to David Foster, who immediately agreed.
Participants were asked to simply say “Welcome home, Terry” for what was to have been a 45-second video — until people began speaking from their hearts.
“It was spontaneous. No makeup, no fancy lighting, just shoot it on your cellphone and email it to us,” said Vigars, who credits CITY TV creative director Lisa Parry with putting the final product together.
The video features singer Sarah McLachlan speaking from her porch, actor Lorne Cardinal walking in the woods and actor Helen Shaver weighing in from the set of Vikings in Ireland.
Vigars said he spent hours on the phone every day trying to reach performers. Four days before his editing deadline, only four had confirmed.
“I have a statue of Terry, about 10 inches tall, a replica of the statue in Thunder Bay that was given to me by the sculptor,” he said. “I picked it up one night, looked at Terry and said: ‘Come on man, make this work.’ ”
Three days later, all 12 on his wish list had confirmed they would do it.
In addition to Gretzky, McLachlan, Shaver and Cardinal, the video includes Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan; actor Art Hindle; musicians Jann Arden, Bryan Adams, David Foster and Tom Cochrane; and Olympic athletes Silken Laumann and Hayley Wickenheiser.
“In 1980, I was driving with the band from Winnipeg to Toronto through northern Ontario, across the lakehead, and I saw Terry Fox,” says Cochrane, recalling the last day Fox ran.
“It was hugely inspirational for me and left a huge impact on me to this day.”
Schneider said while Welcome Home Terry raises awareness about the Terry Fox Foundation, “it also honours that this is where Terry had hoped to come back to — B.C., because he was going to end his run on the coast.”
