If all goes according to plan, the spirit of Terry Fox will take in a movie at Mile Zero this month.
"It's going to look like his statue is actually watching it," said Darren Wark, a cousin of the late onelegged Canadian hero whose 1980 Marathon of Hope has inspired annual runs coast-to-coast to raise money for cancer research.
There are three local runs Sept. 16 - one at Mile Zero, another at Centennial Park in Central Saanich and a West Shore run from the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre. Organizer Courtney Hill is carrying the torch for her father, Dave Hill, a CFB Esquimalt firefighter who recently lost a battle with cancer after organizing the West Shore runs for 17 years.
Now in its fourth decade, the Terry Fox Foundation's Legacy of Hope events have raised $600 million.
The night before this year's Mile Zero run, Wark and fellow volunteers will screen Terry, the 2005 Shaftesbury Films drama starring Shawn Ashmore as the inspirational athlete from Port Coquitlam, at Mile Zero. The film co-stars Matt Gordon as Fox's publicist Bill Vigars, the sa国际传媒based film and television industry public relations specialist portrayed by Robert Duvall in the 1983 biopic The Terry Fox Story.
Wark said he also hoped to feature some footage from Into the Wind, the acclaimed 2010 documentary about Fox that was codirected by Victoria's NBA superstar Steve Nash and Ezra Holland, and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and on ESPN.
"The location is just so ideal, with being at Mile Zero next to the monument. It seemed like the right fit," Wark said.
He said his motivation for the screening was to get even more people involved as prospective runners, or to get their hair cut for charity as part of the Great Canadian Hair Do fundraising challenge in tandem with the national runs.
"I've been growing my hair for a year now, and it's coming off that Sunday," he said. "I look like a Muppet."
The Victoria contractor was so pumped about the outdoor screening idea, he bought the film gear himself. "My wife being as supportive as she is, I now own a very big screen and a 1,000-watt audio system," he said.
Terry will screen at dusk on Sept. 15 in Beacon Hill Park, next to the Terry Fox monument. Admission is free but donations will be accepted.
Registration for the 10-kilometre run at the junction of Dallas Road and Douglas Street takes place there at 9 a.m. The run starts at 10: 30 a.m. For details on all Terry Fox runs, go to terryfox.org. [email protected]
