Guelph students raise over $145K for child brain cancer research
Annual fundraiser 'Ten 4 Ten' started as personal one for teacher at John F. Ross CVI
Students at John F. Ross Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Guelph had a goal of raising $50,000 for childhood brain cancer research.
Instead, they raised $146,994.
And that money will now be matched by Brain Canada and the Canadian Cancer Society, bringing the overall total donated to a special research project led by the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada to $293,988.
"We are sincerely grateful to Upper Grand District School Board and the entire community of Guelph for what they have achieved," Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada CEO, Susan Marshall said in a release. "The research that they are helping to fund is life altering and will help children not only survive but thrive."
City-wide challenge
The students at John F. Ross issued a challenge to the six other local high schools to raise money. The idea for the annual Ten 4 Ten pledge drive, which ends with people having their hair shaved or cut, was started by teacher Mark Yanchus as a tribute to his brother, who died in 1986. At the time, one of Yanchus' co-workers lost her mother to a brain tumour and another colleague had an eight-year-old daughter with a brain tumour.
That eight-year-old girl is now 18 years old and a Grade 12 student at John F. Ross.
Yanchus said the event started off as a personal one, "but has evolved into a collective celebration that has brought our entire community, pupils, teachers, schools, corporate sponsors together."