Ryan Reynolds urges Ontario town to rename arena after 9-year-old girl

Actor Ryan Reynolds made an impassioned address to the Cobourg community services committee to convince them to re-name a local arena in honour of Grace Bowen.

Ryan Reynolds is urging a small town in Ontario to rename a local arena after a girl whose legacy, according to the Canadian actor, changed the lives of “thousands of children.”

The “Deadpool” star met with the Town of Cobourg virtually to rename The Pond Arena after the late Grace Bowen, a nine-year-old girl Reynolds met over a decade ago alongside hockey icon Hayley Wickenheiser.

Bowen was diagnosed with osteosarcoma—the same kind of bone cancer Terry Fox had. She died months later, in March 2015.

“I was just really taken by Grace,” the Vancouver native said at Wednesday’s meeting.

“She went through so much and yet she had this sort of sense of calm and the sense of well-being, and just from the moment I met her that night I said, ‘I’m never, 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.‘”

The town’s Pond Arena was Bowen’s “temple,” Reynolds explained, as she was an avid hockey player—which is why the actor feels its suiting to rename the centre as the Grace Bowen Arena.

“That was her church, that was her everything. Hockey was her life,” Reynolds said.

Earlier this month, Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children—where Bowen battled cancer—launched its 150th birthday celebrations by displaying 150 balloon sculptures commemorating significant milestones throughout its history. One of those balloons marks Bowen’s story, which can be seen at the Pond Arena.

Greg Bowen, Grace’s father, addressed the committee also to share that the Grace Bowen Tribute Fund has raised roughly $400,000 for metastases and pediatric cancer.

“Her life, her short life, has improved the lives of, I would think it’s safe to say, thousands of children and she was a very special individual,” Reynolds said.

The committee unanimously voted to move this item to the town’s regular council meeting for April 30.