Wanting to do their part to contribute to their community’s efforts to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation, students and staff at Arborg Collegiate whipped up a fundraiser last week that brought in $1,524.
Teacher Craig Sagan and principal Brad Harding offered up their faces for a pie throw if the students could meet two fundraising goals.
“If students raised over $1,000, they got to pie one teacher,” said teacher Rachelle Burak, who helped with the event and also took part in the Arborg Terry Fox Run Committee’s community event a few weeks ago. “If [they raised] $1,500, they got to pie Mr. Harding.”
And the students rose to the challenge, surpassing the fundraising goals.
On Sept. 25 they gathered in the gym where Mr. Sagan and Mr. Harding were led to a chair and wrapped in sheets of protective plastic — except for their faces. Student Xavier Skoropett got to launch a pie at Mr. Sagan, and students Haley Koomen and Leah Dudar were given the honours of throwing a pie at their principal.
The high school’s contribution to cancer research — the early middle school and the Arborg Terry Fox Run Committee each held their own fundraisers this month — helped push Arborg and area’s Terry Fox fundraising total to $42,035.94 this year.
Arborg is one of the leading fundraisers for the Terry Fox Foundation. In 2024 the community raised over $31,000, plus another $10,000 from collegiate and early middle students. That made the community Manitoba’s top Terry Fox Foundation fundraiser on a per capita basis.
Terry Fox’s brother, Fred, spent a day in Arborg in earlier this spring to thank the community — students, staff, fire department, local businesses — for their unwavering support for cancer research.
Terry Fox embarked on his Marathon of Hope in 1980, determined to run across Canada after losing a leg to cancer when he was 18. He died in 1981 after the cancer spread to his lungs. His determination to raise money for research and find a cure galvanized the country, with communities holding runs every year in Terry’s name.
