J. Percy Page High School students smash annual bikeathon fundraising record

A gymnasium full of high school students with sleepy eyes and tired legs pedalled for hours to raise money for the food bank. 

Students at J. Percy Page School in southeast Edmonton raised over $65,000 for Edmonton's Food Bank on Nov. 17 and 18 with the school's 14th annual bikeathon. 

In groups of 12, more than 300 students pedalled stationary bikes for 24 hours.

"We have about a month of our student leadership crew, which is about 55 students that get to plan,"said Grade 12 student Jules Ng. 

"In just over a month we were able to raise $65,000." 

The school used a website called Canada Helps for their fundraising. 

Ng said she wanted to thank neighbourhoods surrounding the school like Mill Woods, Meadows, and Summerside for donating to the cause. 

Bianca Brabec, a Grade 11 student, said she felt the students were enthusiastic about the fundraiser. 

"It just made the whole event so much more rewarding to know that we were doing this amount of good and we still got to have a lot of fun," Brabec said. 

The school has a good sense of culture and community, she said.

The bikeathon is a a full-day event so students created cozy areas with beanbags, air mattresses, blankets and pillows. Bags of snacks were scattered around the gym. 

When students weren't pedalling, they had fun playing games. 

Teacher Carmen Neale, the head of student leadership and activities at J. Percy Page, said she was excited watching her students raise money as quickly as they had and set a new record. 

The students had set a fundraising goal of $55,000. Neale said the school had never raised more than $48,000 before.

"And because it's such a local charity, we can see the impact ourselves that we're making," Neale said, adding that events like this teach students leadership skills.