This year’s student council at Bradford District High School decided to take it up a notch for the annual Terry Fox Run.
Students at the high school, admitted head of the council Clare Wei, had been getting pretty “apathetic.” Last year’s Terry Fox Run raised about $1,000 — not all that impressive for a high school with approximately 1,100 students.
So this year, instead of asking participants to run laps around the track, the council set up a series of games and activities on the outdoor field, offered lunch of burgers and chips, and provided an incentive: kids could donate to have their favourite teachers kiss a pig.
The strategy worked. “We have raised over $2,000, which is double what we raised last year,” said student councillor Renée Lam.
On Thursday this week, students kicked soccer balls, threw footballs, tipped truck tires and jumped hurdles, enjoyed a picnic lunch, then gathered around the centre field to watch the main event, at the revamped Terry Fox Run.
It was council member Hennessey Leggatt who came up with the pig kissing idea, and contacted local Dingo Farms, owned by the Harrison family, to provide a piglet.
Bucky the Buccaneer, school mascot, was the first to plant a kiss on the pig’s snout — thanks to $150 in donations from staff and students.
Then it was the turn of the teachers.
Handed handi-wipes, they puckered up: Tyler Leach (who raised a whopping $500), Leyna Leal, Joel Malley, Sarah Sheldon, Marie Accettola-Poro, Tina Tremblay, Michelle Rose, John Hathaway and Brent Dyck each stepped up, as students snapped photos with their cellphones.
There were squeals from both the student and the piglet, which was firmly held by Spencer Harrison.
At the end of the day, Lam said, “This is our most successful Terry Fox Run!”