By Grace Frost
Cancer Council Victoria chief executive Todd Harper personally thanked Plenty Valley Christian College, PVCC, in Doreen for their ‘incredible fundraising’ after the school secured more than $50,000 for the not-for-profit organisation in recent years.
PVCC primarily fundraised the money through Relay For Life, RFL, events.
“On behalf of all of us here at Cancer Council, I wanted to say a big thankyou to all of you at Plenty Valley Christian College for your incredible fundraising over the last eight years,” Mr Harper said.
“[$50,000] is an amazing achievement and makes a huge difference in supporting Cancer Council’s life saving cancer research, prevention and support programs.
“Last year, [Cancer Council] invested over $30 million into cancer research programs. This was thanks to the generosity of people like [those at PVCC], who have worked tirelessly to raise money to support the work we do and help us in our mission to reduce the impact of cancer and save lives.”
The accolades came primarily in response to PVCC’s annual RFL event, which this year raised $22,823 toward cancer research and preventative initatives.
The PVCC RFL tradition began more than five years ago when students were invited to participate in the event off-campus with the wider Doreen community.
The event’s purpose ran deep in the school community, following many past teachers and students being affected by cancer.
With that in mind, the 2018 college captains Anna Warwick and Lachie McInnes and student senate developed an RFL event specifically for the PVCC community to take place on campus after school.
The revamped RFL has since drawn crowds exceeding 1000 people, with the tradition for many teachers, students and alumni at PVCC being the event of the year.
Students show their support for the cause each year by designing banners to display around the school during the relay and dressing in casual clothes.
And each year some brave students, this year including college captain David Tregale, shave their heads in front of friends and family for the cause.
“It was an amazing feeling to see everyone standing around me when I was shaving my head, cheering and supporting,” David said.
“The [PVCC] community were together as one [at RFL]. That’s something that I love about the Plenty Valley network.
“Whether people were spectators at the dunk tank, listening to the live music or getting their heads shaved to fundraise, it was special to be supporting a mutual cause.”
Attendees this year battled cold and wet conditions in late March, while enjoying live music and activities including sumo suit wrestling, face painting and pony rides organised by the student senate.
Nearly three months later, the official tally of funds raised was announced at a school assembly as college captains Alanah McGinty and David Tregale presented Cancer Council’s Andrew Villani a huge cheque.
“It was amazing to see the planning come together after months of hard work,” Alanah said.
“[Presenting the cheque] was such a proud moment and everyone involved did an incredible job.”
Mr Harper said he looked forward to seeing PVCC students at a Relay for Life in the near future to say a personal thank you.
