All month long, faculty from the Junior, Middle and Senior Schools have been working tirelessly behind the scenes towards something entirely unrelated to their school duties.
In 2021, former staff member Eric Donatelli challenged a small group of boarding houseparents to run 100-kilometres in one month. The following year, this competition became a full-blown annual effort that unites the entire staff towards a common purpose, fuels some spicy new rivalries, and raises money for a worthy cause. And, since everyone is running or walking towards their own personal mileage goal, there are always new participants ready to step up each year.
Despite everyone receiving the same modest prize for completing the challenge—a personalized laser-cut medal with their name and kilometres completed—some people take this event very seriously indeed. With a collective leaderboard showcasing the weekly totals of each participant and ranking them in order of their total distance, the May 100K Challenge naturally became a competitive battleground. Some would rack up over five or six hundred kilometres within the month, while others focused on hitting their distance goals solely through running or achieving the highest total elevation gain in their daily grinds up PKOLS (Mt. Douglas). Everybody’s stats are tallied and shared each week, providing fresh new frontiers for participants to claim dominance over.
The May 100K Challenge also features a fundraising aspect to add some meaning to the mileage. Since aligning with the Million Reasons Run—an annual Canadian month-long charity event where participants record their collective running distance to raise awareness and funds for their local children’s hospital—our school fundraising team has collectively raised over $12,000 for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation since 2023.
With only a couple days left in the month of May, our 100K champs are making sure to push through to the end and gather those last few donations to hit their fundraising goals before their time runs out. Once June hits, we can anticipate that these dedicated faculty will take a collective sigh of relief, kick up those feet, and enjoy a much-deserved break to relax—or recover!
Update: May 31, 2025
Thirty-seven participants participated in 2025, up from 29 last year. Together 8036 kilometers were logged in walking and running with $5,704 raised for BC Children's Hospital (up from $3,347 last year). A few staff awards were also highlighted:
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Richard DeMerchant and Gillian Nasmith receive the Mountain Goat Award by ascending a whopping 5596 m and 5571 m of elevation, respectively.
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Jeremy Bell wins the Jackrabbit Award by completing the 100 km in just over 8 hours of running in total.
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And of course, one participant spent the May 100K Challenge edging out a ton of other competitors with 634.6 km in the month of May—a new record! Brad Edgington is the recipient of the Caribou Award.
