Pickering girl hosts dances, sells lollipops to help eliminate disease
Jul 03, 2009 - 04:30 AM
By Kristen Calis
PICKERING -- Madison Naar looks forward to an event that keeps her up for more than 24 hours each year.
The 12-year-old Pickering girl works tirelessly to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society's annual Relay for Life, an event she's taken part in for the past six years. For the 2009 relay in June she sold lollipops, reindeer Christmas crafts and held movie nights and dances in her basement, collecting money to fight cancer.
Last year, the Fairport Beach Public School student and team captain of Revenge of the Cures (a play on the movie, Revenge of the Nerds), raised $4,877.52, and her 11-person team earned $9,508 in total. On the night of the fundraiser at Oshawa Civic Fields, the team dressed up in "nerd" costumes.
"I like raising money and I want to make cancer history and to remember the people we've lost," she said.
Madison has lost a number of family members to cancer including three great-grandparents, a grandfather, and aunts.
Relay for Life is an overnight, 12-hour, non-competitive event where people come together to celebrate survivors, remember loved ones and fight back to find a cure for cancer. But for Madison, the event is around 24 hours because she helps set up; she leaves for the day at 6:30 a.m. and the relay goes until 7 a.m. the next day.
Madison's mother, Kim Naar, a member of the organizing committee for Durham's relays, is proud of her daughter.
"She comes to all the meetings," she said, adding Madison came second overall in online collections.
In fact, she's impressed with all the young people who have participated in the relay over the past few years.
"They're the ones who are going to continue on to make it successful," she said.
To register a team for the 2010 event, which will mark 10 years since the relay started in Durham, visit
www.cancer.ca/relay.
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