Despite the 2013 Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock officially ending nearly two months ago, Reynolds secondary continues to prove it's a powerhouse fundraising school.
This week students presented the team with a final tally of $101,134 – some $26,000 more than they had originally expected to donate.
"We understand how hard it is to raise $100 – that's a difficult thing to do. When we turned the cheque over (on Oct. 4) it was $75,000 and we were happy. We didn't think it would go up another $26,000," said vice-principal Dean Norris-Jones. "Our goal is to honour the process and the results look after themselves."
Arnold Lim, Black Press' media rider on this year's team, said he was blown away by the size of the cheque Reynolds presented.
"The real people that deserve every piece of glory are the students who are working so hard, so diligently, day and night, all for people they will never meet," Lim said. "It's so impressive to me seeing such selflessness in these students. It is such a treat to be around and I'm in awe of it."
Earlier this month the Reynolds students were honoured with the Youth in Philanthropy award at a National Philanthropy Day event in Victoria for their Tour de Rock fundraising efforts.
It was there they met fellow philanthropist and Second World War prisoner of war Rudi Hoenson, who connected with the students and donated a $5,000 personal cheque to help the school break the $100,000 mark.
"The kids kind of went slack-jawed. It's not often you see kids go slack-jawed by a 90-year-old rockstar," Norris-Jones said. "One of the reasons I'm so proud to be someone who's associated with this school is kids who leave here are complete students; they understand there's a social responsibility piece to their education."
Kristen Hayden, community giving co-ordinator for the Canadian Cancer Society, says it's remarkable seeing what Reynolds has done to support the cause.
"What they do is incredible, and hopefully Vancouver Island sees what these kids are doing to help other kids and that inspires them even more to rally behind this cause is for," she said. "They just put so much work into this."
In the nine years Reynolds has been fundraising for Cops for Cancer, which provides money for pediatric cancer research and support program, the school has raised $470,000.
This year's Tour de Rock team raised a total of $1.2 million.
kslavin@saanichnews.com