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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, A ug us t 4, 20 22 | 26 PICK YOUR FAVOURITE VOTING NOW OPEN It's in your hands. The Readers' Choice Awards were created for you to tell us which local businesses and service providers are the best at what they do! The nominations have been submitted and now the top 10 nominees have been shortlisted and are ready for your VOTE! VOTE TODAY to help make your favourite local business become a Readers' Choice Winner. insidehalton.com Iroquois Ridge High School raised $126,000 for the Canadian Cancer Soci- ety through its Relay for Life fundraiser. The effort put the school among the top five fundrais- ers in Canada. Stephen Merner, the staff supervisor for the event, said it was an entirely student-run event. Oakville Trafalgar High School, with a corporate sponsor to match what the students raised, finished first in the country. More than 500 of Iro- quois Ridge's 1,300 students took part in the overnight relay, while hundreds more took part in the different events the school held, like a dance and a food truck day. They also sold hoodies, doughnuts and freezies and held raffles for prizes lead- ing up to the event. "We put faith in the stu- dents to create what they wanted," Merner said. "The students knew what the stu- dents wanted and it made students want to be in- volved." A group of 20 students, led by Jivan Kesan, Rhaam Anpalagan and Olivia Shu, started meeting weekly in September to plan the event, though the actual fundraising campaign didn't begin until the first week of June. Students pro- moted the relay on Face- book, TikTok and Insta- gram. Amrit Grewal, a Grade 12 student who was diagnosed with cancer while in Grade 9, spoke to the students and staff about her experience. "You could have heard a pin drop when she got up to speak," Merner said. The fundraising effort topped the school's previous best by $40,000. LOCAL RELAY FOR LIFE FUNDRAISERS AMONG TOP FIVE IN CANADA Iroquois Ridge High School raised $126,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society through its Relay for Life event. Iroquois Ridge HS photo HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@metroland.com NEWS