The memory of a beloved Guelph teacher is continuing to live on in the community.
Students, staff and family gathered at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School Friday to honour Sean MacMillan with the third annual Mr. Mac Memorial Run.
MacMillan was a longtime Grade 4 teacher who passed away suddenly in August, 2021. The tradition started just weeks after his passing.
"It's important that we honour Sean every year in this way, and I think this is an event he would really appreciate," said former St. Francis principal Renee Waterfield, who was transferred over to St. John Catholic Elementary School in 2022.
"He was a big outdoors man, being outside in the fresh air. I think he's looking down on us with a big smile."
Students and staff participated in the two kilometre run, running past signs depicting messages of love and things MacMillan enjoyed, whether it was the outdoors, the school's chess club or his favourite NHL team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Co-organizer Tanya Murphy was quick to point out the event is a collaborative effort by so many people.
"At St. Francis, everybody helps," she said. "When our shirts say 'Falcon Family,' definitely everybody gets on board."
Whether it was to set up ribbons, cones or signs, it was an all-hands-on-deck effort to put everything together during the morning.
A welcoming environment for a man his colleagues remember as humble, caring, funny, generous, and an amazing dad.
"We had a lot of good parenting conversations after school," said Lindsay Gallant, a Grade 5 teacher at the school. "He helped me a lot with my own parenting."
"There was never any drama, which I loved so much," added Barb Bitton, a Grade 4 teacher who now teaches in the same room MacMillan taught. "You'd talk to him, and trust that he was going to take things seriously.
"You feel like you could bring anything to him, and he'd talk it out with you."
Gallant and Bitton also joked about MacMillan being the lone male teacher at the school. Waterfield added he had a big impact on students.
"Students waited to get to Grade 4 to have Sean as their teacher," she said.
"He was loved by so many people," said MacMillan's wife Kimberly, who took in the event with kids Kalen and Leah.
"It brings tears to my eyes because my heart is just so full with the generosity of the school, and the students and the staff that make this possible."
"I think being able to organize this shows just how much he mattered to people, and how much people appreciated him being there for them when they needed it," added 13-year-old Kalen.
"Because that's the kind of teacher and person he was."
