On April 8, THEMUSEUM in Kitchener revealed an exhibition called Terry Fox — Running to the Heart of Canada, which explores the Canadian hero’s 143 day, 5,373 kilometer journey from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Visitors to THEMUSEUM now have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the exhibit’s array of materials from Fox’s journey, including his journal, artificial leg, media interviews and press clippings.
The Terry Fox exhibit originally started at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, which displayed artifacts that were contributed from the Fox family.
According to David Marskell, chief executive officer of THEMUSEUM, the Canadian Museum had not originally planned on touring the exhibit, but after working with them, the exhibit was moved to THEMUSEUM.
“It’s open here. We’re the first to have it and then it goes to Winnipeg and then it’ll go for a tour of several cities,” said Marskell.
Darrell Fox, younger brother of Terry Fox and senior advisor to The Terry Fox Research Institute, who also travelled with Terry on the Marathon of Hope tour, was invited to open the exhibit to the public.
“The first day it opened with Darrell Fox, we had several hundred people come to that opening and it is doing very well in attendance and we’re getting a lot of school groups booking it and just regular visitors and families and so on,” said Marskell.
As a special feature of the exhibit, Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope van, a Ford E250 Econoline which travelled with Fox, is now on display at Waterloo’s Conestoga Mall
The van was originally going to be on display until the end of May. According to Marskell, the positive response from the community allowed THEMUSEUM to extend their exhibition of the van.
“Now that we’ve got [the van] up and open and we’ve seen the response from the community, we very quickly, after three or four days, began talking about extending it and keeping it there, so it’s a coincidence with the closing of the actual exhibit on June 16.”
According to Marskell, placing the Marathon of Hope van in Conestoga Mall gave THEMUSEUM a huge opportunity to become more involved with the community, as thousands of individuals will be able to witness the iconic artifact and trail it back to the main exhibit at THEMUSEUM.
“It’s free at the mall. People can go and see it at no cost and it’s really cool,” said Marskell.
“I mean, it’s a real Canadian artifact if you will and it’s such an amazing thing to see.”
The Fox family also secured Mile Marker 3339, a highway sign that resided along the TransCanada Highway for over 30 years.
The sign marked the end of Terry’s Marathon of Hope and will be on display at THEMUSEUM next week. Both the Running to the Heart of Canada exhibit and the Marathon of Hope van will be open to the public until June 16.
