Honouring everyone

Coun. Ken Boshcoff wants to restart the conversation of creating a museum honouring everyone who has made a cross-Canada journey for a cause

Terry Fox, Rick Hansen and Steve Fonyo are synonymous with trekking across Canada for a cause.

But they’re by no means alone.

Each summer dozens and dozens of like-minded souls lace up their runners, tighten up their chains and take to the country’s highways and back roads, all in the name of raising awareness and cash for cancer, multiple sclerosis, First Nation’s rights or, in Rodney Stafford’s case, to keep the memory of his murdered daughter Victoria alive.

Coun. Ken Boshcoff thinks it’s about time everyone was recognized.

Boshcoff, who first floated the idea of a cross-country marathon museum a decade ago, when he was still mayor, plans to reopen the plan Monday night, when city council meets for the first time this month.

It’s an idea whose time has come, says Boshcoff, still uncertain what form the commemoration might take.

“We realized everybody who is crossing Canada for a fundraising or an awareness-raising event, has to come through Thunder Bay and the municipality of Shuniah, where Terry Fox finished his run,” Boshcoff said Monday.

“Somehow the idea just faded away, so I’m just trying to revitalize it, because in this new era of data collection and saving information, we can probably do it so inexpensively with some sort of electronic kiosk.”

Boshcoff said the likely location would be the Terry Fox monument, a Mecca for anyone attempting the journey, located just to the west of where Fox’s Marathon of hope ended on Sept. 1, 1980. But he didn’t rule out other sites, including the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.

The Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame was contacted for comment on Monday, but officials were not immediately available.

There’s plenty of value in his idea, Boshcoff said.

“It can perpetuate the legacies of all these people who are going across the country in rather historic fashion.”

He’s open to ideas about what form the commemoration might take.

“Not only do we have the responsibility of being keepers of the Terry Fox flame, we have an opportunity from a tourism and historical perspective, to really do something with that information, that knowledge and that history.”

As to who would cover the costs, his first choice would be the province, through the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.

The costs would be minimal, he added, and he doesn’t foresee any jobs being created to accomplish it.