Raindrops dotted the bronze shoulders of a young boy frozen in mid-stride, one hand clutching a schoolbook, the other a baseball, as townsfolk pressed close beneath umbrellas and bunting. Port Coquitlam’s heart beat a little louder on this particular afternoon—the day Terry Fox came home, again.
The plaza outside the community centre stretched wide, echoing with laughter and the shuffle of feet. Here, after 45 years, two new sculptures stand as sentinel and storyteller, bearing witness to the journey of a local boy who outran anonymity and became the pulse of a nation. These are not the familiar images of Fox, all sweat and sinew under a Marathon of Hope t-shirt, prosthetic leg biting track. Instead, Spanish sculptor Casto Solano has carved something more intimate into Port Coquitlam’s story—one statue capturing Terry’s youthful hunger for play, the other his relentless drive, eyes fixed on the horizon.
“Terry loved running, and he was very competitive in running in our community growing up,” said Mayor Brad West, watching his neighbours lean in for a closer look. For West, the art is less about preserving a legend than about reintroducing the young man behind the myth. The Gateway of Giants, as the installation is fittingly named, bridges decades and memories, inviting passersby to meet Fox both as the determined child and the relentless visionary.
Inside, the Terry Fox: Inspiring Local Champions exhibit traces the seams of his legacy—his well-worn Adidas, a spare prosthetic, the unmistakable white t-shirt. These relics hum with presence, each a token in the city’s tightly held collection. The air smells faintly of fresh-cut grass and anticipation, as children ask questions and parents search for the right words.
Port Coquitlam is not content with passive remembrance. The mayor calls it a “special responsibility” to pass on Fox’s lesson to the next generation: that persistence counts, that ordinary people can force the world to reckon with hope. Every September, the town sets its feet pounding again for the annual Terry Fox Hometown Run, choosing action over nostalgia, and challenge over comfort. The legacy endures, not in marble or bronze alone, but in the small acts and conversations that ripple outward, year after year.
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Statues unveiled to honour Terry Fox in his hometown of Port Coquitlam, B.C.
