Arklan School Terry Fox run unites students and community
CARLETON PLACE — When students at Arklan Community Public School laced up for this year’s Terry Fox Run, they weren’t just running for a cause, they were running for family.
Inspired by their vice-principal’s daughter, who is courageously battling the same cancer that claimed Terry Fox’s life, the school community united during the Arklan School Terry Fox Run to raise an incredible $20,485 in her honour, far surpassing their original goal of $12,500.
“This is such amazing community spirit,” said Carleton Place Mayor Toby Randell. “Teaching the kids the value of community goes to show what can be accomplished when people come together.”
The entire school rallied for weeks to meet the goal. They sold T-shirts, ice-cream sandwiches and grilled cheese, accepted online donations, even got creative with side hustles. Some students made and sold bracelets and crocheted pumpkins. One determined Grade 5 student, nine-year-old Maverick Matthews, took to yard work.
“I raked leaves around my neighbourhood, and I made $150,” he said proudly.
“I had kids come and empty their piggy banks,” said vice-principal Sarah Rudge.
Rudge’s daughter, Sam, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the same cancer Terry Fox had, on Sept. 11, 2023, at the age of 16.
Her journey has been anything but easy. When her first chemotherapy treatment didn’t go well, her surgery was moved up. In November 2023, Sam underwent a 13-hour procedure that involved a full knee replacement and partial replacement of her femur and tibia. Doctors were able to save her leg.
“It’s been pretty hard. We used to play together, but since they got sick, not so much. I miss them,” said 14-year-old Piper Rudge, Sam’s youngest sister.
Four months and many hours of physiotherapy later, Sam re-learned how to walk and began a four-month course of chemotherapy. By May 2024, it looked as though the cancer had retreated.
In September, Sam visited Arklan with her mother to speak to students about her diagnosis and treatment experience.
“I wanted them to inspire the children to raise money for the Terry Fox Run,” said Rudge. “The kids were great and asked Sam a lot of questions about the experience.”
That year, students raised $11,470 during the Arklan School Terry Fox Run, earning Arklan the Ted Kennedy Award in early 2025 for raising the most money of any school in the Upper Canada District School Board.
But around the same time the award was announced, Sam received devastating news: the cancer had returned, this time in her lungs. Still, it was the students’ determination that gave her strength.
“They’re so young, and they really care,” said 17-year-old Zoey Rudge, Sam’s sister. “My school only raised $300, and Sam went there.”
In May of this year, Sam had a lung resection and initially seemed to be recovering. But just weeks later, she had trouble breathing and collapsed. She was rushed, unconscious, into emergency surgery in Ottawa to remove a mass on her lung.
After several weeks at Roger Neilson Children’s Hospital, Sam recovered enough to return home. However, she had developed leukemia and now requires weekly blood transfusions, regular scans and ongoing hospital visits. Still, she continues to fight.
This year, Sarah Rudge said she never expected the school would nearly double its previous total. “I figured we could beat our total from last year. I never imagined we’d get to $20,000.”
When the final total of the Arklan School Terry Fox Run was announced, the students’ joy was explosive.
The school had promised that if the goal was surpassed, students could dunk or pie a teacher or local dignitary. Top fundraisers Shaye and Sullivan McNulty, who together brought in $1,600, were the first to step up, gleefully dunking UCDSB superintendent Casey Nelson and the mayor (see photo).
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