One last Blast Off for Terry Fox

By Lethbridge Herald on September 19, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

After taking part of the Terry Fox Blast Off run for over 30 years, students and staff at Father Leonard Van Tighem ran together one last time to celebrate Terry’s legacy and raise funds for cancer research. 

With the school switching to a Junior High School in 2026 after 33 years of hosting students from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 9 and celebrating the Terry Fox Blast Off run for just as long, this year the energy for one last run together was felt with every step. 

Principal Shannon Collier said that even though this was the last run as a pre-K to Grade 9 school, there is hope for the future. 

“It’s just a beautiful thing to see our full community of pre-K all the way to Grade 9 kids taking part in a run such as this and making sure that they’re looking out for each other,” said Collier. “Even though this will be our last year as a pre-K to Grade 9 doing the run, our hopes are in the future as a Catholic faith community we can bring all of our schools together on the West side and do this run here at Father Leonard Van Tighem.” 

She said it is important for the school community as a Catholic faith community to make sure that they are looking out for other people and being mindful of coming together with excitement and enthusiasm to support something as beautiful as being able to give back. 

“We’ve been doing this for over 30 years in this school and watching the kids run through and have a great time is fantastic. And there’s been a lot of staff running too,” said Collier. 

Steve Leger, Physical Education teacher and event coordinator said there was a mix of emotions while taking part of the last Terry Fox run as a pre-K to Grade 9 school. 

“It was very excited to celebrate Terry Fox’s legacy, but also kind of sad for Father Leonard Van Tighem because it is our last official pre-k to Grade 9 Terry fox run,” said Leger. 

He said that for him it was hard to realize that there will be big changes coming to the school, with the Terry Fox Run being one of them. 

“The Grade 9 students lined up today for one last tunnel for the little ones to go through, something many of them did when they were little at the beginning of the run,” said Leger. 

At the beginning of the day, students and staff gathered at the gym to watch a video showcasing Terry Fox, his legacy and his efforts. After this, students from pre-K to Grade 2 walked out of the gym through a tunnel made by Grade 9 students towards the field to begin their run. 

Throughout the day different grades had the opportunity to run. Pre-K to Grade 2 had a modified track, Grade 3 to Grade 8 ran two kilometres, while Grade 9 students ran three.