Monthly Archives: March 2005

YOU ARE HERE – return engagement by Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Equity Co-op

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Here's a theatre production that my friend Noah Drew is involved in:

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Equity Co-op REMOUNTS its acclaimed 
production of
YOU ARE HERE
  by Daniel MacIvor

March 24 – April 2, 2005 @ 8pm (no show Monday)
   Matinees: March 26, April 2 and April 3 @ 2pm
   2-for-1 Performances: March 24 & 29

at Performance Works
   1218 Cartwright Street, Granville Island
   Vancouver, Canada

Tickets: $20/$16
   604.255.4871
   Seen the show already? Ask about our "COME AGAIN DISCOUNT"
   Group rates available.
__________________________________
Directed by Mindy Parfitt.

Starring Colleen Wheeler
with Sean Devine, Noah Drew, Alexa Dubreuil, Laara Ong, Robin E. 
Richardson, Courtenay Stevens and Alex Williams.

Designed by Sydney Cavanagh (Set & Costumes), Joel Etkin (Sound) and 
Larry Lynn (Lights).
__________________________________
“This show is one of the best things you’ll ever see.” (Colin Thomas, 
Georgia Straight)

After stunning reviews and a sold-out extended run,  Horseshoes & Hand 
Grenades Equity Co-op is back with a remount of the Fall 2004 hit, You 
Are Here. For those who made it on the waiting list but not into the 
theatre... for those who were urged to see the show but couldn’t... or 
for those who want another dose of the play that made both The 
Vancouver Sun and The Vancouver Courier’s “Top Ten theatre productions 
of  2004” lists... here’s another chance. You Are Here is an 
unsettling, daring, intimate, funny and profound theatrical experience.

“Theatrical Gem of 2004 ... so hot that those who see Vancouver’s 
theatre scene as too staid are urged to see this show.” (Peter Birnie, 
Vancouver Sun)

Meet Alison, a once-idealistic writer turned celebrity journalist 
trying to figure out how she ended up middle-aged, in the film 
business, in front of an audience and not at all sure why. Has she 
died? Is she supposed to entertain all of these people? Smiling 
nervously, Alison sits in the spotlight and re-examines her life as her 
memories, insights, hopes and rationalizations fly across the stage. In 
this remarkable and beautifully simple play, Alison’s life spirals into 
chaos and tragedy: a failed career, a failed marriage, the loss of a 
pregnancy, addiction, her own death. With poignancy, bitter humor, and 
an appreciation for the glimmers of light and friendship that kept her 
afloat along the way, Alison rediscovers love that fades, hopes that 
die, and enduring friendship that offers the promise of redemption.

"The superb Colleen Wheeler delivers the performance of the year." 
(Jerry Wasserman, VancouverPlays.Com)

“You won’t want to miss You Are Here.” (Jo Ledingham, The Courier)

The Return of Sex in Vancouver – April 3, 10, 11 & 12: by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre

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Here
is the return engagement of Sex in Vancouver – the local theatrical
production based on the  show “Sex in Seattle”.  It's a lot
of fun and everybody I have recommended  the show to  or
brought has thoroughly enjoyed it.  Who'd have thought that Asians
could be so damn sexy… well maybe my girlfriend.. and my ex
girlfriends… and my…

 

SEX IN VANCOUVER fans rejoice!

imageVancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (“VACT”) is bringing back Episodes 1 and 2 of this
hilarious hit series of plays that had sold-out audiences laughing, lusting,
crying and cheering for 4 hot Asian girlfriends and the hopeless men in their
lives.

If you missed out last time, this is your chance to catch up on all the
outrageous, sexy action. And if you've already enjoyed either one or both
shows, grab a date or bring your friends and get them hooked on the wacky lives
of Elizabeth, Tess, Jenna, Shari, Kenneth, Colin,
Zane and George… or should we say: Jorge!

Only 4 performances! So HURRY, buy your advance tickets NOW!

Catch both Episodes 1 and 2 in one special performance
on April 3, 10, 11 and 12 at the Roundhouse community theatre in Yaletown. Both episodes had sold-out performances in 2003
& 2004.

CALL (778) 885-1973
TICKETS $20 (single episode: $12)

$22 at door

 image

Thank You, Canada, For Letting Us Land Our Plances: Asian American Poets in Vancouver

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Thank You, Canada, For Letting Us Land Our Planes

Ricepaper Magazine, Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, Filipino Canadian
Youth Alliance, and the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society
Presents:

“(NA)AWP: North Asian Americans Write Poetry, or
Thank You, Canada, For Letting Us Land Our Planes”

Featuring
KAZIM ALI, NICK CARBO, TINA CHANG, PAOLO JAVIER, TIMOTHY LIU, AIMEE
NEZHUKUMATATHIL, OSCAR PENARANDA, RAVI SHANKAR, PRAGEETA SHARMA, and
EILEEN TABIOS

WHEN: Friday, 7:00pm, April 1st 2005

WHERE: Our Town Café
96 Kingsway (Corner of Kingsway and Broadway) Vancouver

BIOS:

KAZIM
ALI is the author of the novel “Quinn's Passage.” He is assistant
professor of Liberal Arts at The Culinary Institute of America and an
editor with Nightboat Books. His first book of poems “The Far Mosque”
will be published this October by Alice James.

NICK CARBO's latest book is Andalusian Dawn. He lives in Hollywood, FL and teaches in the MFA program at University of Miami.

TINA
CHANG, the author of Half-Lit Houses (Four Way Books, 2004), received
an MFA in poetry from Columbia University. Her poems have appeared in
American Poet, Indiana Review, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares,
Quarterly West, Sonora Review, among others. She has received awards
from the Academy of American Poets, the New York Foundation for the
Arts, Poets & Writers, the Van Lier Foundation among many others.
She currently teaches at Hunter College.

PAOLO
JAVIER is the author of two books of poetry, 'the time at the end of
this writing' (Ahadada), and '60 Lv Bo(e)mbs' (O Books, fall 2005).

TIMOTHY
LIU is the author of five books of poems, including OF THEE I SING,
which was named a 2004 Book of the Year by PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. A new
book, FOR DUST THOU ART, is forthcoming from Southern Illinois
University Press. Recent poems have appeared in Arabic, Chinese and
Polish translations. An associate professor of English at William
Paterson University and a member of the core faculty at the Bennington
Writing Seminars, Liu lives in Hoboken, NJ.

AIMEE
NEZHUKUMATATHIL is the author of _Miracle Fruit_ (Tupelo 2003), winner
of the Tupelo Press Judge's Prize, ForeWord Magazine Poetry Book of the
Year, and the Global Literary Filipino Award, and was a finalist for
the Asian American Literary Award and the Glasgow Prize. She is
assistant professor of English at State University of New
York-Fredonia, right in the heart of Western NY's cherry and
berry country, where she lives with her dog, Villanelle.

OSCAR
PEÑARANDA, longtime community activist, advocate for ethnic studies in
the schools, teacher and writer, has two books out recently published
by San Francisco publisher/distributor T'BOLI PUBLISJHING: “Seasons By
The Bay, A Collection Of Interrelated Stories” and “Full Deck (Jokers
Playing)”, a collection of poetry.

RAVI SHANKAR is
poet-in-residence at Central Connecticut State University and the
founding editor of the online journal of the arts. His first
book Instrumentality, as published by Word Press in May 2004. His work
has previously appeared in such places as The Paris Review, Poets &
Writers, Time Out New York, Gulf Coast, The Massachusetts Review,
Descant, LIT, Crowd, The Cortland Review, Catamaran, The Indiana
Review, Western Humanities Review, Cake Train, The Iowa Review,
Smartish Pace, and the AWP Writer¹s Chronicle, among other
publications. He has read at such venues as The National Arts Club,
Columbia University, KGB, and the Cornelia Street Café, has held
residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, and the Atlantic Center
for the Arts, has served on panels at UCLA, Poet¹s House,
South-by-Southwest Interactive/Film Festival, and the AWP Conference in
Baltimore, been a commentator for NPR and Wesleyan radio, reviews
poetry for the Contemporary Poetry Review and is currently editing an anthology
of South Asian, East Asian, and Middle Eastern poetry. You can read an
interview with him at: www.jacketmagazine.com/16/dev-iv-shank.html.
He does not play the sitar.

PRAGEETA SHARMA is the author of
Bliss to Fill (Subpress Books) and The Opening Question (Fence Books).
She teaches in the graduate creative writing program at New School
University and in the low residency BA program at Goddard College. She
lives in Brooklyn, New York.

EILEEN TABIOS, recipient of the
Philippines' National Book Award for Poetry, recently released a
multi-genre collection, I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED,
encompassing poetry, experimental fiction, art monograph, play and
conceptual art. In 2006, she will release her 8th poetry collection,
THE SECRET LIVES OF PUNCTUATIONS, VOLUME I. She is also the founding
editor/publisher of Meritage Press, a multidisciplinary press based in
St. Helena and San Francisco, CA.

Magic Realism writers at Our Town Cafe March 30

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Join six terrific North American authors for a special night 
celebrating the diversity and popularity of literary

MAGICAL REALISM.

7pm Our Town Cafe


Co-hosts:
JOHNNY FREM of Vancouver's lively and interactive Bolts of Fiction 
literary arts community
www.boltsoffiction.org/

TAMARA KAYE SELLMAN, editor and publisher of MARGIN: Exploring Modern 
Magical Realism
www.magical-realism.com

are proud to announce the upcoming performances of these marvelous 
magical realist writers:

Janice Eidus of New York, NY, USA
John Briggs of Granville, MA, USA
Ewing Campbell of Austin, TX, USA
Karen McelMurray of Milledgeville, GA, USA
Pauline Holdstock of Sydney, BC,
paulo da costa of Calgary, ALTA and Cortez I, BC

The event is held in conjunction with the year-long celebration of 
the 5th anniversary of MARGIN, the de facto North American 
clearinghouse for authors of magic realism. 

WE WANT YOU! (to participate in this audience-interactive event):
Between performances, selected definitions of magical realism will 
be presented by Sellman as a way to answer the question:
"What IS magical realism?" and Frem will give out various door 
prizes.


Response to Pete McMartin's Vancouver Sun column: Open Dialogue Needed on Racial Cultural Issues

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re: Open dialogue needed on racial, cultural issues – Pete McMartin
Vancouver Sun

Monday, March 28, 2005

Pete McMartin wrote a column today
stating that with the projected growth patterns of visible minority
immigration to Canada, that we need to take another look at
multiculturalism and ask if it is working.

He asks questions like:

What happens when the visible minorities are no longer minorities?

What pressures will be brought to bear
on the Western cultural tradition when immigrant numbers rival (in the
big cities at least) native-born populations?

Will the education system begin to
fracture along ethnic, linguistic and religious lines?  Will the
same happen to our politics and voting patterns, with a clannish
loyalty o an ethnic community before the greater community?

What will unite us as a people?  Will multiculturalism engender a choheseive future or a muddled one?

Canada was once a country of Two Solitudes: Are we about to become the country of Many Solitudes?

The following is my friendly response (short form – longer to follow).

Dear Vancouver Sun

I invite Pete McMartin to be a special guest at Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish
McWong’s Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner, and to experience the joy shared
recently by Mayor Larry Campbell, and MLA’s Joy McPhail and Jenny Kwan who wore
each other’s tartan plaid and Chinese cheong sam. Over 3,000 guests have now
been served at this annual event that has inspired a regional CBC TV performance
special and a “Canadian Games” event at Simon Fraser University – all named Gung
Haggis Fat Choy.

Canada is now post-multiculturalism. Like inter-racial dating, and
inter-racial marriage, we are inter-cultural, sharing and mixing. We are now
beyond the solitudinal behavior of racism, protectionism and “otherness” and
embrace today that Canada as a nation, and shares a variety of heritages from
around the globe, as people marry into “our family”. Indeed, my own family
descended from Rev. Chan Yu Tan who arrived in 1896 is now seven generations
long in Vancouver. We have fought for Canada in WW2, had a Miss Canada finalist,
and even a First Nations Indian Chief. And we have welcomed people from all
around the world into the Chan decendents family – even the Scots!

Mr. McMartin’s answers will be found by experiencing life as a
multi-generational multi-ethnic Canadian – not by intellectualizing as a
Anglo-Gaelic-Canadian who doesn’t even own his own kilt, or does he?

When Canadian poet Fred Wah, who is ¼ Chinese, ½ Swedish, other parts Scots
and Irish, can read a poem about growing up in a hybrid culture to a loud
ovation, Chinese born bagpipers play along to a Scottish Canadian opera singer
singing in Mandarin – something special is happening. As our 2006 co-host
Shelagh Rogers would say, “Sounds Like Canada to me.”

Slainte, Todd Wong aka “Toddish McWong”

Toddish McWong, Joy McPhail MLA, Jenny Kwan MLA, Mayor
Larry Campbell, Shelagh Rogers @ Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2005 – photo Naoko
Watanabe

Still celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Vancouver at Irish Heather

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I was still in the mood to celebrate St. Patrick's Day last Thursday, even after putting a dragon boat in the March 13, St. Patrick's Day Parade for Celtic Fest Vancouver,
and creating my first Chinese St. Patrick's Day dinner party at the
Flamingo Restaurant on March 20 (actually an appreciation party for
volunteers and performers of the January 2005 Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dinner event).

My buddy Rod and I went down to the Irish Heather
in Gastown, where we listened to the celtic music of Tim Fanning and
his musical mates while we drank Guinness draft beer.  Tim was
playing the uileann pipes,
a more small room friendly type of bagpipes.  He alternated with
Irish flutes and penny whistles (I imagine the fingering is all the
same), while his mates played guitar, fiddle and bodhran – a celtic
hand drum. 

I first met Tim on a unseasonably cold October evening in 2003 when he played his bagpipes with the Paper Boys for the CBC TV performance special Gung Haggis Fat Choy.
Producer Moyra Rodger had turned the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Classical Gardens
into a large music video set where the Paper Boys performed in the
water pavillion, and were joined by Fanning on bagpipes and Jian Ming
Pan on Chinese flute.  It was a magical evening with the gardens
lit up especially for the music video, and it was brilliantly
transformed into the lead performance for the CBC special.

Tim is better known in Vancouver as Constable Tim Fanning, who
occasionally gives media reports for the Vancouver Police
Department.  He is a great guy, and was wearing a Chieftains
t-shirt that they gave him, when he met them.

Good company was easily found at the Irish Heather as I bumped into Janek Kuchmistrz,
a friend of a friend.  Janek remembered me as being the guy who
cleaned up the boardgame of Risk two Christmases ago.  I
remembered him the schoolteacher guy whom I immediately got along well
with.  Turns out that Janek is running as the Green Party candidate for Vancouver Burrard. 

We had a good chat about the new proposed referendum on proportional representations system
that will be voted on May 17.  This would allow for a more
balanced legislature instead of the overwhelming majority currently
controlled by the present Liberal government.  I believe that a
legislature that supports diversity should itself be inclusive of the
political voices in our province, based on proportional voting. 
This would mean that I could still support good people from both the
Liberal and NDP parties such as Jenny Kwan  and a handful of Liberal such as Richard Lee. 
The objective of a Opposition Party is to provide a balance in the
legislature.  Remember that when Frank McKenna completely won the
Liberal landslide in New Brunswick he purposely set up a opposition of
Liberal backbenchers – something BC's Gordon Campbell failed to
do.  If we truly value diversity in a multicultural society, then
I also believe we have to value diversity in a political legislature
too!

Sid Tan is an Urban Legend in the West Ender newspaper

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Here's an article on my friend Sid Tan from the pages of the West Ender newspaper in Vancouver BC.

Thursday, March 10, 2005
Urban Legends




Photo


full image


Long-time Eastside activist Sid Tan took his grandfather's advice to heart.



Sid Tan, on head tax and being a good-time man

Who: Sid Tan

What: President of the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians

Roots:
Born in China, Tan came to Canada as a 'paper son' – under falsified
papers that showed him to be the son of his grandparents. Tan and his
family were affected and separated by exclusionary government policy
which was in place as recently as 60 years ago. Today, Tan works as a
social activist, fighting for an official apology from the Canadian
government, which would include a redress of the $500 'Head Tax' once
charged on Chinese immigrants.

In
brief: “I'm from East Van, formerly out of Saskatchewan. I'm a
good-time man. That's why I'm known around the world. I'm a Gold
Mountain dragon and a Rocky Mountain warrior. The other day, my friends
and I had a contest to see who could eat a live rat the fastest, and I
won. I've got steel wires for guts, concrete in my bones and fire in my
blood. I've been called a Navajo, I've been called Juan from Mexico,
I've been called Carlos the Filipino, but my favourite is still 'Good
Time Joe.' I can cook better, eat faster, love longer, yell louder,
shout and act dumber than anybody I know, with the exception of my
Uncle Bing. There's not a woman alive that can't make a fool out of me,
that's how tough I am.”

Knowing his roots: “To live is hope. In the great scheme of things, I
have two kids, they're both full-grown. My son's a lawyer in Sydney,
Australia, and my daughter's a professional poker player. I'm a
grandfather. So what are you going to do? I have to try to make a
better world. That's hope. I get pensive, but you get to choose, and I
choose to participate. I choose to participate because my grandfather
didn't have the chance to participate when he was my age, because he
was a second-class citizen. It was not until 1947 that he could
actually vote as a Chinese-Canadian. He always impressed on me the
importance of that.”

Go left, young man: “Even as a kid, I was pretty politicized. One of
the first battles I fought in and won was Medicare in 1962. I mean, who
would have thought we'd ever have that? When I was a kid, somebody
threw a rock at me and I was blinded in one of my eyes and I had to go
to University Hospital in North Battleford. I seem to recall that it
was $1,300 that my grandfather had to pay. I remember I had to write
out the cheque for him, and that was a tremendous amount of money, that
was all his savings. You never forget that.”

Some
things never change: “I graduated from the University of Calgary with
an arts degree, and that and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee. I
was supposed to be a lawyer, but I got busted. I was named after a
lawyer, actually, a man called Sidney Waterman… my grandfather,
knowing a bunch of important people, and wanting to bring us kids over,
knew that this man was responsible for helping make that happen, so he
decided to honour him.”

Some
things never change, part II: “This is my claim to fame in my hometown:
I was the first person busted for hash possession…. We were at the
University of Calgary, and we had this massive amount of hash and we
brought it back to Battleford. Big mistake…. We got busted, and I had
to spend a night in jail and think I had to pay a $500 fine, and I
think my tuition for school was only $300, so it was a lot. These are
things you look back on and, they weren't funny at the time, but you
look back and you see that it's kind of funny, and this is the way
heaven's meant it to be – just like my grandfather getting his
citizenship in 1947 and the Communist Revolution happening in China in
1949. Some things are meant to happen.”

Present-day
upstanding citizen: “I think in regard to recovering the head tax
there's no use negotiating numbers until the government decided to come
to the table to negotiate. I've talked to the survivors – and remember,
we're talking about a handful of people. There's only three
head-taxpayers that I know of in Canada, and I've been working on this
20 years. There's some spouses, women that were separated from their
husbands during exclusion from 1923-1947. I believe that they should
get some sort of individual recognition and compensation. As for the
descendants, the sons and daughters, they can decide what they want,
but I think that many of them would be happy with some sort of larger
community redress.”

Correcting
the future: “What we're having trouble with is the recognition. They
haven't apologized or anything, they're just throwing money out there
and letting us fight for it…. How come the Japanese have received
redress? The head tax and exclusion is more current. I don't care about
compensation; I'm going after the principle of the tax refund. I
believe the 81,000 people who paid the head tax should be commemorated.
Because a hundred years from now, their descendants will be claiming,
like Americans do with their ancestors who came on the Mayflower: 'My
ancestors paid the head tax, and my ancestors got justice.'”

Remembering
the past: “Both my grandparents are buried in Battleford, Saskatchewan.
I don't really have any loyalty or patriotism to the old country. I was
born there but I've never been back… I'm a proud Canadian. One of the
reasons I do this is because I'm interested in the story. I don't care
about the money, I don't care about the compensation. I want to put the
story right. That's what I feel I have to do, as a Canadian.”

International
wisdom: “This is my grandfather's, but I'll put it in a more literary
way: when you exercise your muscles, you build your body; when you
exercise your brain, you strengthen your mind; and when you exercise
your rights, you reveal your soul.”

Copyright 2005 westender

Join the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team

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Who's ready to dragon boat?

The 2005 dragon boat season has started up, and the Gung Haggis Fat
Choy dragon boat team will begin Sunday practices on April 4th,
2005.  Practices start time will be 2pm, and will be held either
at Plaza of Nations or Science World (I am finalizing details). 

Cost will again be $130 to cover registration for Alcan  Dragon Boat Festival, boat rentals and team shirts. 

Check these links for more information on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team and our coaching philosophy.
Check out our extracurricular activities such as carving a dragon boat head and creating a float for the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and being filmed for the “Thalassa” dragon boat documentary

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is now entered in:

June 18/19 Alcan Dragon Boat Festival
July 9/10 SeaVancouver Festival
September 3/4 Vancouver Intl Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race

other possible races:

May 21 – Lotus Sports Club “Bill Alley” regatta
July 16 – race at Harrison Lake or Kent Washington
July 23 – Richmond Dragon Boat Festival

Paddlers can pick and choose which events to enter, as their schedules
permit.  Costs for each additional race  is separate.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team had an eventful season in
2004.  We were filmed by a French television crew from Paris for
the travel documentary series “Thalassa” which aired globally in
December 2004. The show featured our team paddling and doing Tai Chi in
the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park in Chinatown. And we made the Rec D finals,
paddling hard for a chance at medals… at least we had the chance. 
And we improved from the Rec D consolation rounds in 2003.

In August, some team members along with co-coach Bob Brinson, travelled
to Seattle to take part in the world’s first dragon boat barrel racing
event.  Tacoma Dragon Boat Association organized the event on Lake
Union and it was so much fun that Bob Brinson incorporated the barrell
racing event into the Vancouver International Taiwanese Dragon Boat
race on Labour Day weekend.  Again Gung Haggis made it to the Rec
D medal round but got edged out by a team we had beat earlier in the
event.  Some of our paddlers did take home medals as we also
competed with the Spirit
of Vancouver team, as we had borrowed some of their paddlers for our race too!  All in good sharing spirit!

In September, some of us joined up with Tacoma Dragon Boat Association
as they raced in the Penticton Dragon Boat Festival, where we had the
top time of the day, before the races were cancelled due to high
winds.  Then in October we paddled again with TDBA in voyageur
canoes for the UBC Day of the Longboats where our Men’s team placed 1st
overall, the mixed team came 3rd, and the women’s team put in a great
effort!  Gung Haggis Fat Choy was entered in the Fort Langley
Cranberry Festival Canoe Regatta. We had great fun, and learned how not
to paddle voyageur canoes in the pumpkin pick-up race, having overshot
the pumpkins and
having to paddle back downstream, then back upstream
to finish the race.

Cheers, Todd Wong
604-987-7124

Terry Fox featured on brand new $1 Canadian coin.

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Terry Fox featured on brand new $1 Canadian coin.

On Monday March 14th the Royal Canadian Mint celebrated the legacy of Terry Fox by honouring him as the first Canadian to be featured on a commemorative circulation coin. 

It was on April 12th, 1980 that Terry Fox began his Marathon of
Hope, a personal goal to run across Canada, and a personal goal to
raise the equivalent of $1 for every Canadian, $25 Million
dollars.  The coin will begin circulating on April 4th, just in
time for the 25th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope.

“We are
hopeful 30 million Canadians will pay tribute to Terry in this
anniversary year by raising the equivalent of one “Terry” dollar from
each and every citizen.” said Darrell Fox, Terry's brother and National
Director of the Terry Fox Foundation.


Todd
Wong and Darrell Fox, Terry's brother and Terry Fox Foundation National
Director, standing beside a cardboard display of the $1 “Terry” coin. –
photo Deb Martin.

The coin unveiling was a wonderful
ceremony in the SFU Theatre.  There were performances by Vancouver
Children's Choir.  The platform party included Honourabel John
McCallum M.P., as Minister of Revenue and Minister Responsible for the
Royal Canadian Mint; President David C. Dinwall for the Royal Canadian
Mint, and Terry's parents – Betty and Rolly Fox.

The best
speeches were made by Betty Fox and engraver Stan Witten.  Betty
said that for all the money spent on creating the coin, Terry would
have preferred that it all went instead to finding a cure for
cancer.  Stan commented about how inspired he had been by Terry's
Marathon of Hope, and tried to capture the emotion and Terry's courage
with the windswept trees in the engraving.

After the ceremony, a
coin exchange was held.  People were encouraged to exhange a
dollar for the Terry Fox coin, and then donate a second dollar for the
Terry Fox Foundation.  These were the first time coins were being
made available for the public, as circulation of the coin will not go
into effect until April 4th, 2005.

Vikram,
Betty Fox, and me – Todd Wong:  Vikram and I are both Terry's Team
members.  I first met Vikram at a Terry Fox Run in North Delta,
and when he told me was too was a cancer survivor I invited him to
become a Terry's Team member. – photo Deb MartinI was fortunate to be
invited to the coin unveiling, held at Simon Fraser University,
where Terry attended Kinesiology classes.  It was while he played
basketball on the Varsity team that his cancer was discovered. 
Even after Terry's leg was amputated due to the bone cancer, he
continued to be a manager for the Jr Varsity team.  Terry loved
SFU.  He was determined to make the basketball team, displacing
atheletes on scholarship.  He trained for the Marathon of Hope at
SFU, by going up the long uphill road both by running, and in
wheelchair.  He organized fundraiser dances in the
gymnasium.  It's ironic that in 1989, while I was similarly
attending classes at SFU, that's when my own life-threatening cancer
was discovered..

My personal connection with the Terry Fox Run
began in 1993, when Darrell Fox, then director of the BC Yukon Division
called me on the telephone after hearing me speak about Terry Fox on
the Rafe Mair show on CKNW Radio.  Simon Fraser University had
just awarded me the SFU Terry Fox Gold Medal given “in recognition of courage in adversity and dedication to society.” 

Darrell
invited me to become a Terry's Team member, cancer survivors who serve
as living examples that cancer research has helped to make a
difference.  Darrell also encouraged me to start a Terry Fox Run
at SFU in 1993, sharing with me the family's disappointment that there
was currently no Terry Fox Run at SFU.

“It just takes one
person,” he said to me, “look at what Terry accomplished.” 
Inspired by Darrell's pep talk,  I went to talk to Lorne Davies,
then SFU Director of Athletics, then came back with the news. 

“Sorry
Darrell, there isn't going to be a Terry Fox Run at SFU in 1993, but
there will be in 1994,” I reported to Darrell. “Plus there will be a
very special inaugural Terry Fox Day,” and I suggested to him that we create a trophy case for the SFU t-shirt that he still had of Terry's.

Since
1993, I have spoken each year at elementary schools and run sites
throughout the Greater Vancouver, Kelowna BC in 2001, and 2002, and
Beijing, China in 1993. 

Here is a story that I wrote in the SFU student Newspaper The PEAK,
about my experiences of surviving the near-fatal cancer tumor and
helping to create the t SFU, which was resurrected in 2001 with the
unveiling of a 9 1/2 foot stature by scuptor Steven Harman.  SFU Terry Fox Day
is now an annual event to both honour one of Canada's greatest heroes,
inspire SFU students, and bring the SFU community together to honour
one of their own.

It has truly been a blessing to meet both the
Fox family, and the friends that Terry made, and to hear their stories
about how Terry Fox made a difference to their lives.  To help
celebrate the 25th anniversary of Terry's Marathon of Hope, I will be
writing about my experiences as a Terry's Team member.  If you
would like to share your memories of Terry that could be selected for
broadcast on CBC Radio and/or Television or for publication in
“Memories of Terry: Canada's National Scrapbook” by Canadian author
Douglas Coupland – then please contact www.cbc.ca/terryfox.


Rick
Hansen and me. Rick was the guy who first invited Terry Fox to play
wheelchair basketball and they became fast friends, even wheelchairing
up the long steep roads to SFU to shoot baskets in the gym.  I
first met Rick at a press conference for the Terry Fox Run in 1993,
Rick is also a recipient of the Terry Fox Gold Medal from SFU. -photo
Deb Martin.


This
statue of Terry Fox, by sculptor Stephen Harman, was unveiled in 2001
and is placed in the inner courtyard of the Academic Quadrangle. I
helped to start the very first Terry Fox Day at SFU in 1994.  A
trophy case containing bronzed photos and an SFU “1000 Mile Club”
t-shirt that Terry loved are featured – photo Deb Martin