Terry Fox Run and Orange Shirt Day

Terry Fox Run

On Thursday 26th of September there was an event in my high school, the run named «Terry Fox Run». During my parenting class, an announce was past in all classes, calling everyone who participated at the run to go outside. During this time, I stayed with my teacher and a student. Then, they explained me what happened and the story of the run that took place. Now, I want at my turn to make you discover this run typically Canadians...

Terry Fox Run story:

It all started with a Canadian athlete named Terry Fox, a research activist dedicated to cancer treatment. He will begin to enter in the history the November 12th,1979 after has suffered as a car accident. He only came out with a knee pain. Later, he was diagnosed with cancer of the knee, which can spread in the leg. To cure him, his leg was amputated. On 12 April 1980, he began his «Marathon of Hope» with an artificial leg to raise money for cancer research. He was forced to stop his medical exploit on September 1st, 1980. On June 28th, 1981, he died of pneumonia. His memory is honoured each September with the participation of the vast majority of students in the Terry Fox Run to Fight Cancer. To this day he is considered one of the heroes of the 21st century.

So me, I was also a part of this run. It's called «run» but in reality, the major part walked. Many students and teachers have been involved in this project. This march lasted 20 minutes, to go up as we finished the march that Terry Fox could not finish. A $10 donation was needed to help cancer researchers move forward.

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Orange Shirt Day

This Monday 30th of September was the Orange Shirt Day. All schools and cities participated in it, so Sacred Heart (my high school) too. On this day, I was able to learn about a part of Canadian history, a tragic event, and saw a lot a people involved in this cause.

All the students know this story, my exchange partner explained to me what happened...

Canada (catholic) wanted to inculcate our values to American Indians, lived in Canada too. Therefore, they took the strong way, it's mean they removed from their community children, to put them in residential schools away from their families. The purpose was to assimilating them into the dominant Canadian culture. It’s a very complex story, a lot of children died during that period, and my family explained me that it was a bit of a heavy subject for some people.

Phyllis Webstad (a woman who lived through this tragedy) told her story to the public. Due to that, I learnt that at the age of six, she was torn away from her community and taken away from her home to residential school. That day, she was wearing an orange sweater that was taken away to give her a uniform. What happened led to the creation of Orange Shirt Day, which recognizes the damage done by Canada’s residential school system ( loss of family, language, culture, freedom...)

• Since then, wear an orange sweater (like Phyllis Webstad) honors residential school survivors and those who didn't survive.
  

• Canada (catholic) doesn't wish to forget this part of history (even if they are at fault) because they want to show that Canada has become better.
  

• This date was chosen because it was the period of year when children were taken from their homes and put in residential schools.
  

In my high school, a lot of people were involved, both students and teachers. Many signs were posted on classroom doors (such as this one) to commemorate this dark time in Canada.

Thanks for reading about this part of my trip,

Louise DOCHE