Delta Secondary Raises $20K at Inaugural Relay For Life Cancer Fundraiser
Students, teachers, and survivors walked, played, and rallied for the Canadian Cancer Society. Turnout shattered fundraising goals.
On Tuesday afternoon, Delta Secondary's track filled with energy—students running laps, families playing tug of war, balloons being tossed, a slip-and-slide set up near the bleachers, and lawn games dotting the field. The occasion: the school's first-ever Relay For Life, a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society that shattered expectations by raising over $20,000 against an original goal of $12,500.
Relay For Life is part walkathon, part community gathering, part memorial. Participants take laps around a track while celebrating survivorship and remembering those lost to cancer. Tuesday's event drew dozens of students, teachers, parents, and local cancer survivors.
Tammy Veltkamp, who was diagnosed 13 years ago and is cancer-free today, spoke directly to the crowd: "I'm standing here today because of other people I never knew. The researchers who spent late nights in labs, the nurses and other health practitioners who had the right equipment, and people just like yourselves who decided that someday wasn't fast enough to find a cure."
She reframed the event's physical work—the laps, the sweat, the hours on a spring evening—as something tangible. "When you're a patient, you feel like you're losing control of everything. You feel like you're losing control of your body, your schedule, even maybe your future, but when I look at this event, I see you taking back that control on our behalf."
The proceeds fund the Canadian Cancer Society's research and support services. Event co-chairs Paisley McGill and Jack Osten were visibly moved when the group exceeded their goal before the event officially closed. New treatments are being discovered constantly, Veltkamp noted, "because of the literal sweat and tears they're putting on this track today."
The closing message was simple: "To the survivors here today: we are the lucky ones. We are the evidence that hope is real, and finally, to those we've lost: we walk for you. We remember you, and we promise to keep going until cancer is just a chapter in a history book."
For a first-year event, Delta Secondary didn't just meet the bar—they exploded it. That kind of community energy doesn't come from obligation; it comes from people who understand the stakes.