It was nearly noon on Wednesday morning and everything at Bellerose Composite High School was eerily quiet.
Suddenly, a pair of bagpipers burst out of the gymnasium at full blare as they marched in a procession of students toward the atrium. There in the very heart of the school, dozens of stationary bikes were waiting.
This was the scene as 850 teenagers prepared to set down and bike for 48 hours. That's the timeframe for another annual edition of the largest high school fundraiser in Western Canada.
The school's tenth annual Bike-a-thon kicked off in typical floor-shaking fashion during the lunch hour and runs until the same time on Friday. It's more than your typical charity event where kids join teams and get their friends and family to offer pledges in the endless fight against cancer.
When the crowd was asked to identify who had been affected by the disease, everyone – a mass of humanity nearly 1,000 strong – raised their hands.
The sense of community wasn't lost on Taya Tweten, one of the organizers behind the school's recent #EllenforBikeathon tweet-up to get the attention of daytime talk show host Ellen Degeneres.
The student took to the stage during the ceremony to relate a story about her father's battle with ocular melanoma. He lost his eye and later his life, but his memory obviously still burns bright in the young woman.
She said that the Bike-a-thon is important for so many reasons.
"I'm so happy to be a part of this event and to be a part of such a wonderful school filled with people who realize the hardships of cancer and will go leaps and bounds to put an end to it," she remarked.
Later, she added how much it meant to her personally.
"Everything, the world … honestly."
Former principal George Mentz said that he was looking forward to his first time on the alumni team. It fills him with pride to see such devotion to a good cause, he mentioned, and it never fails to bring a tear to his eye.
"I'm looking forward to looking at the crowd, looking at the kids, knowing that these kids are doing something so meaningful, and they know it's meaningful," he said.
This Bike-a-thon marks a decade for the event and it's as strong as ever. The walls are bedecked with signs and posters, even a wall of cards signed by participants, showing their reasons for riding. All of those reasons are grandmothers and grandfathers, moms and dads, aunts, uncles, siblings and friends.
Despite the seriousness of the proceedings and the motivation, the students never fail to make it as lively as possible with team themes ranging from superheroes, Average Joes, Waldos and tie-dyes to Loraxes, Snack Packs and SWAT (Students With A Target) members.
These two days will be filled with spinning wheels, sure, but also a lunch hour head shave, karaoke, a midnight dance party (complete with mosh pit, of course), motivational speeches, a visit from the hypnotist and the much-anticipated Edwards/Beaton/Kennedy Super Awesome Happy 2 Hour Fun Times Excellence Show.
A decade of dedication
Over the last nine years, the school has brought in more than $700,000 for cancer charities. During the opening ceremony, it was announced that almost $250,000 has already been raised this year alone, bringing the countdown to $1 million closer to everyone's attention.
Funds raised are divided between the Kids with Cancer Society and the Alberta Cancer Foundation.
Charissa Spencer, the foundation's fundraising events specialist, said that money raised this year would help fund the clinical trials unit at the Cross Cancer Institute.
"Every single cancer drug, every single cancer treatment has to go through clinical trials. What you're doing by raising funds," she stated, talking straight to the crowd, "is ensuring that the patients right here … are the very first ones to benefit from those leading edge, groundbreaking, first in the world cancer treatments and therapies."
Members of the public can donate straight to the cause via the school's website at bchs.spschools.org.
