Archie Stouffer Elementary School staff and students wearing stickers noting they were walking for their grandpa their friend their aunt or Terry himself participated in the Terry Fox School Run on Sept. 27.

This year classes were able to tailor their walk time and route to what suited their schedule best resulting in a steady student and school presence throughout the community that day. Event organizer and ASES teacher Corinne McArthur said this year students learned more about cancer research and Terry Fox’s legacy aided in part by an educational video produced by the Terry Fox Foundation. She showed her own class a photo of her teenaged niece who was initially diagnosed with osteosarcoma like Terry was.

“We’ve had a lot of tears in our small conversations” she said adding that students acknowledged family members who they missed or who had survived a cancer diagnosis the latter which McArthur said “shows the power of the fundraising.”

Classes were encouraged to join together enabling students to build relationships between classrooms in the early days of the school year according to McArthur. Some students did laps in the school field receiving a sticker for each lap completed some classes walked together throughout the forest behind the school and many walked downtown or along the town boardwalk that day.

The total amount raised by ASES staff and students was not known at press time but prior to the day’s walk more than $400 had been collected.