So, exactly what is the Cops For Cancer Tour de Rock and how did it come to be, anyway?
The simplest answer is that it’s a two-week bicycle journey in which a team of police officers rides 1,000 kilometres from the north end of Vancouver Island to the south, raising money to fight childhood cancer. Since 1998, the Tour has raised more than $15 million for the Canadian Cancer Society, which uses the money to fund pediatric cancer research and programs that help children with cancer and their families.
The more complicated answer is, well, complicated. How to describe the way in which the people of Vancouver Island have embraced the cause as their own? How to quantify all the work – all the head shaves and hot dog sales – done by the fiercely dedicated fundraising committees in each of the 27 communities that the Tour rolls through each fall? How to measure the satisfaction that comes from fighting back against the disease that struck the ones you love?
In some ways, the thread of this story stretches all the way to Alberta and 1994, when Edmonton police sergeant Gary Goulet befriended a young boy with cancer. Chemotherapy had robbed the boy of his hair, exposing him to ridicule from other kids.
Goulet, who already had a shaved head, wanted to show the boy that it was OK to be bald, offered to pose for a photo with him in front of a police cruiser. Other cops joined in. In fact, seven shaved their heads for the occasion. That, in turn, grew into a fundraising initiative with the money going to the Canadian Cancer Society.
By 1997, the Cops For Cancer head shaves had reached Victoria. The local police weren’t satisfied with breaking out the razors, though; they wanted to try something bigger. A brainstorming session between the cops and the cancer society resulted in Saanich constable Martin Pepper’s suggestion of a bike ride the length of the Island.
Pepper and Penny Durrant of the Victoria Police assembled and trained a team of 14 riders, while the Cancer Society enlisted the help of community sponsors, including what is now named Coast Capital Savings. That first ride, in 1998, pulled in $325,000.
Since then the amount has grown and grown. Participation among the police – municipal, military and Mounties – has increased, too: A total of 208 police officers and 22 others have ridden the Tour since 1998. A brand new team is picked every year (the only rider allowed to participate twice was Pepper, who completed his second journey in 2007).
The 2011 team, made up of police officers and members of the media, will add to the totals. So will the people of Vancouver Island, who have taken it upon themselves to lead the fight against childhood cancer.