Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds is expressing his support for an Ontario town to rename a facility in honour of a late nine-year-old girl.
The Vancouver-born actor appeared virtually this week at a committee meeting in Cobourg, ON, to push for a local arena to be renamed after Grace Bowen, a young girl who died of cancer in early 2015.
In the appearance, Reynolds said that Bowen changed his life when he met her over ten years ago through Toronto’s SickKids Foundation.
Reynolds is a long-term supporter of Toronto’s SickKids Hospital, through fundraising campaigns. He, along with wife actress Blake Lively, have pledged to financially match donations to the foundation, which have reached up to $500,000.
This week, he virtually attended the Ontario town’s community services, protection and economic development standing committee to speak in favour of renaming The Pond Arena, along with Bowen’s parents.
“[The arena] was Grace’s temple; that was her church, that was her everything. Hockey was her life,” Reynolds said. “Her name kind of said it all.”
Bowen passed away after her battle with osteosarcoma, which is the same form of cancer that Canadian humanitarian and athlete Terry Fox passed away from in 1981.
In 2016, Reynolds posted a tribute to Bowen following the news of her passing, calling her a “giant.”
My friend, Grace Bowen. She lost her battle but she'll win the war. She was a giant. @sickkids @wick_22https://t.co/4HJLtfrL3W via @youtube
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) November 3, 2016
“As parents of someone who has lost a child, I think I can speak for anyone in our shoes. The biggest fear is that you’ll never hear someone else say their name again,” Bowen’s father, Greg, said at the meeting.
The agenda item will be voted on by Cobourg City Council on April 30 after the committee voted unanimously to move it forward.
