“Bikeathon started ten years ago when I first came to the school. One of our students, her name was Chelsea, was in a car accident and she lost both of her grandparents and her mom and she became paraplegic. She was in the hospital for close to a year. We were wondering what we could do as a school to help out and raise her spirits. We also wanted to raise funds because although Alberta Health Care took care of the cost of her surgeries, there’s nothing out there to fund getting a ramp put in someone's house and making their house wheelchair accessible. So that was our very first fundraiser. The whole school came together to raise money so Chelsea could go home and sleep in her own bed. At that time, the event was just a one-off. We did it and it was great. Then the next day, I had grade elevens come to me and say, ‘That was cool to be part of this community event. Let’s make this something that we do annually as a proactive service.’ So I approached my admin and asked if we could have a grade twelve Leadership class with the sole purpose of organizing this annual initiative. We started it, and the kids were very excited.”