Ryan Reynolds asks Ontario town to rename arena after 9-year-old girl lost to cancer

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Ryan Reynolds wants officials in Cobourg to rename a local arena to honour a young girl he met in Toronto, who died in 2015 following a battle with osteosarcoma.

According to Global News, Reynolds met nine-year-old Grace Bowen in Toronto when he was being inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame back in 2014. Bowen was attending the event with Canadian hockey superstar, Hayley Wickenheiser.

Appearing during a virtual event with Cobourg officials, Reynolds said Bowen “changed my life” when he was in Toronto accepting his award more than a decade ago.

“About 10 years ago, I met a young girl named Grace Bowen … she changed my life, really. I met Grace backstage with Haley Wickenheiser, who many of you know is a Canadian hockey legend. I was just really taken by Grace,” he said. “Her name kind of said it all. I went about my business … Grace at some point came up and gave me a hug … but I just remember looking at this little girl who’s going through so much … and she had this sense of calm and well being.” 

Reynolds said the encounter stuck with him. “I remembered thinking, I’m a person who’s very much in the public eye, and I do a lot of philanthropic work, but as far as I was concerned, I wasn’t doing anything with this platform that I had.”

Meeting Grace, he said, changed his perspective and was the catalyst for him giving more of his time to kids and families in need.

“Just from the moment I met her that night, I said, as long as I live, if I have a free moment for any kid who’s carrying a bag of rocks around like that, or their parents, I will make time for them. I don’t care where or how or when,” he said.

Reynolds has been working with SickKids Hospital “forever,” and hospitals in the U.K., the U.S. and other parts of the world.

The Deadpool star said he finds it “grounding” sharing his fame with kids in need.

When it was suggested that the Pond Arena could be renamed for Grace, he wanted to do anything he could to support that venture.

“That was Grace’s temple,” Reynolds said. “That was her church, that was her everything. Hockey was her life … The Pond Arena is a very lovely, serene name for a place … Unless it’s named after somebody named Pond … It would be pretty beautiful if we were able to rename the arena the Grace Bowen Arena, or the Grace Bowen Memorial Arena.”

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After Reynolds’ speech, the Cobourg committee voted unanimously to support renaming the Pond Arena. The motion will go before Cobourg City Council later this month.

Following her death, Reynolds paid tribute to Bowen on X, calling her a “giant.” 

“She lost her battle but she’ll win the war,” he wrote.

When Reynolds accepted the Entertainer of the Year prize at the Critics’ Choice Awards in 2016, he dedicated the award to Bowen and Connor McGrath.

“The character had cancer and some of the people that this character resonated with were sick kids,” Reynolds said. “So I would like to dedicate this honour to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the SickKids Foundation of Toronto, two incredible organizations that do so much for so many kids in need. And I would also like to dedicate this award to the memory of my friends Connor McGrath and Grace Bowen. They didn’t lose the battle, but they started the fight — and it’s up to us to finish it.”

Reynolds has regularly helped raise money for Toronto’s SickKids. Last December, the actor and his wife, Blake Lively, matched donations up to $500,000 for the hospital.

According to CTV, Reynolds’ previous fundraisers have racked up more than $3 million in donations.

mdaniell@postmedia.com