Fort High’s annual bike-a-thon raises nearly $30,000

Students, staff and others peddled all night long to raise money for children with cancer.

Fort Saskatchewan High School held it’s Spinning For Smiles Fourth Gear bike-a-thon on Friday March 1 into the early morning hours of Saturday, March 2.

“We are raising money and awareness for cancer, but the event does more than that,” said Grade 11 student, Shelby Bradley. “The bike-a-thon brings the school and community together. I feel closer to my peers and my teachers after coming together for this cause.”

Students created teams and each team was given a living space in the gymnasium of four metres by four metres, which included one stationary bike. Students brought couches, televisions, gaming devices, even fridges and there was only one rule: the stationary bikes had to keep spinning for the full 24 hours.

“The whole community came out to support us,” said principal Sunny Sandhu. “We had RCMP and emergency responders stop by to take shifts on the bikes, and food donations from local businesses kept arriving to keep our students going. The bike-a-thon isn’t just a Fort Saskatchewan High event, it’s a Fort Saskatchewan event.”

Sandhu added that the school has a great group of students and Cancer touches everyone’s lives in different ways, making the bike-a-thon an emotionally heavy day and they prepare the students as best as they can.

Leading up to the bike-a-thon, students spent months raising awareness and fundraising for the event.

All funds will be donated to the Smiles from Spencer Foundation, which was founded by Tyson and Janna Turner in 2010 after losing their son Spencer to cancer when he was in Grade 6.

Over the last three years, students at Fort High have raised more than $106,000 in total for the charity. The money given to the foundation then get donated to the not-for-profit organization, Kids with Cancer Society.