The final amount is in and Oak Bay High school students raised $56,118 for the Canadian Cancer Society’s Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock, easily breaking last year’s record of $46,000.
The students were at $34,000 two weeks ago, but with a couple more events and an email asking the alumni to contribute, the teens more than doubled their annual goal of $25,000.
“We got an anonymous donation for $6,000,” said Grade 11 student Claire Woods, who was tasked with media relations this year. “We also had our top head shaver ever. A Grade 10 student named Briar Rose (Redchurch). She raised $5,200.”
Planning for the annual fundraiser started in the previous school year and the first fundraising events began in the last week of August, before the new school year started. A team of 100 students helped organize and put on various activities such as a bottle drive, dance workshop, a benefit concert, a Cops for Cancer Olympics, a pie-the-teacher event and a head shave. It took almost two months for the students to raise the record amount.
“We had a lot of events,” Woods added. “It went great.”
Woods chose to forgo shaving her head this year as she did it last year. However, she plans on shaving it again next year to mark her graduation from high school.