UPDATE: Audrey Polovnikoff, recreation and cultural programmer at the Castlegar Community Complex said the run generated more than $3,000 in community donations and about 200 participants took to the course.
The business challenge was won by the Columbia Power Corp. which had the highest ratio of staff in the event and will receive Tim Horton's coffee and goodies. The Heritage Credit Union, BMO, Celgar and Stanley Humphries Secondary School teams were all going to receive fitness centre passes for participating in the challenge.
"A huge thank you to the Selkirk Saints for helping us with registration as well as to our sponsors," said Polovnikoff.
* Story below
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The annual Terry Fox Run took place on Sunday, Sept. 15 and an estimated 100 plus participants ran, walked and wheeled 5 and 10 km routes through Castlegar starting and ending at the Community Complex.
Castlegar resident Ashley Gibbenhuck ran the 5 km route of the Terry Fox Run pushing Riley (2) in a stroller. Though it's not a competitive event, she seemed pleased with her 28 minute time.
"I wanted to give back to the community," said Gibbenhuck, who said she has been in Castlegar for two years. This was her first Terry Fox Run here and she said she was happy to have had nice weather.
Jeff Lafortune's team, Team Jeff, was all smiles as they approached the finish line. The all ages group surpassed their fundraising goal of $300 for the Terry Fox Foundation and said they too were enjoying the morning stroll.
The foundation distributes approximately $20 million in discovery based research funds each year in Canada alone.
Fox, a resident of Port Coquitlam, B.C., set out on his cross-Canada "Marathon of Hope" in 1980, hoping to inform Canadians of the importance of finding a cure for cancer. Running an average of 42 kilometres (26 miles) every day for 143 days, he eventually was forced to end his run in September of the same year when the osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) in his right leg spread to his lungs. He died in June 1981 but not before seeing the fundraising total grow to over $24 million that year.
According to the foundation website, over $600 million has since been raised worldwide for cancer research in Fox's name.
If you were unable to participate in the event, information about donating online, by mail or by telephone can be found at www.terryfox.org by clicking on the "donate now" button at the top of the page. $5 donations can also be made by texting "terryfox" to 45678.
We will update this story with final participant numbers and the winner of this year's business challenge, when available.
* An earlier version had the business challenge prizes attributed incorrectly. Corrected version above. Our apologies for any inconvenience the error caused.