As schools throughout Wellington County celebrated Terry Fox Day on Thursday, Rickson Ridge Public School teacher Brandon Rees was taking the message of hope and perseverance a little further.
The Rickson Ridge teacher and avid runner ran 33 kilometres, visiting 16 different schools in the Upper Grand District School Board, and more, to help spread Terry Fox's message.
"The fundraising part is great, but I also wanted to really encourage kids to see the value of setting yourself goals and really pushing yourself outside your comfort zone," Rees said shortly after arriving back at Rickson Ridge to the cheers of students gathered outside.
"It's about finding the spot that makes you comfortable and going a bit past it. I know I did that today," he said. "I'm pretty sore today."
Rees started his run at 9 a.m. and finished around 12:15 p.m.
Most of the schools knew he was coming by and gave him a warm reception.
"It was pretty amazing to see all the schools out, see all the kids clapping and all the high-fives."
Any time he ran by one of the schools in the Catholic system he said he "popped in" to tell them what he was doing and to say "hi."
Most of the schools throughout the city held Terry Fox Day events on Thursday.
"It was unbelievably positive. William Winegard Public School had to be the best of the bunch. They had me run through the parking lot, all the kids lined the sides of the school and we posed for pictures," Rees said.
"But even John F. Ross, the high school in the middle of their day, came out and clapped and cheered. Everybody was really great and really positive."
In 2017 Rees circled Rickson Ridge Public School 70 times, basically a marathon, to show his support and raise funds for cancer research on the school's Terry Fox Day
On his left calf Rees sports a tattoo of Fox running his Marathon of Hope.
"It truly is mind boggling to think what Terry Fox was able to do on one good leg and with cancer slowly taking his lungs and every day, just getting back up again and running another marathon. It's impossible not to be inspired by it.
"I'm just trying to do my one little bit. It's a tiny, tiny fraction of what Terry did."
