Queen’s Relay for Life didn’t just meet expectations, it blew past them.
This year, the Queen’s Relay for Life team raised $255,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society, exceeding their previous year’s earnings by $30,000 and exceeding their initial fundraising goal by $85,000. Their overnight event, which took place in the ARC on March 20, saw over 650 attendees from both the Queen’s community and the broader Kingston community.
READ MORE: Queen’s Relay for Life celebrates its 20th anniversary with a $170,000 fundraising goal
The Journal sat down with one of the current co-chairs, Kavi Gupta, HealthSci ’27, and two of the incoming co-chairs, Jackson Cohen, HealthSci ’28, and Ella Johnson, ArtSci ’27, to recap the event.
“I really felt this year, that it was so connected,” Gupta said. “Everyone, regardless of their faculty, background, even individuals who don’t even go to Queen’s, had the time to come show up and to share their story.”
Cohen explained that one aspect of the event attendees really engaged with this year was the non-competitive relay.
“We [have a tradition where we] hand people a bead every time they complete a lap, and the goal, as the night goes on, is to grow a bigger and bigger bead bracelet,” Cohen said. “We ran out of beads within the first two or three hours, […] and we had bought way more than we thought we’d need.”
The trio also highlighted the luminary ceremony portion of the event. The ceremony began with planned survivor testimonies, but after the speeches concluded, the executives spontaneously opened a space for anyone to share their stories.
“It was just an outpour of so many different individuals, from students to staff to community members to survivors themselves, that went up,” Gupta said. “They spoke, for example, about how fundraising for the Canadian Cancer Society gave them a second shot at life. Some cancers previously, 10 years ago, might not have had any positive outcomes.”
Gupta shared that he was incredibly happy with the outcome of the event and its fundraising, noting that $255,000 is enough to fund 43 clinical trials, send 170 children to medically supportive camps, or provide 5,600 days’ worth of meals to people undergoing treatment.
Still, Johnson and Cohen expressed ambitions to make the event even bigger in the coming year.
“We want to just make a greater impact on the community,” Cohen said. “My vision for this is to get as many students involved as possible. I want to try to involve everyone. Because while I think the money is an amazing aspect of it, and it’s incredible, another piece to it is that it builds this really strong community.”
Tags
Canadian Cancer Society, fundraising, Queen's Relay for Life
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