After 48 hours of intense pedalling, students and staff at George McDougall closed out the 2018 Ride of The Mustang this afternoon (March 29th).

The closing ceremonies, which followed the final countdown, featured speeches from Mayor Peter Brown, Principal Gary Bell and a very special guest.

Shouts of joy were heard after the cheque presentation for this year's Ride of The Mustang.

Jack is a patient from the Alberta Children’s Hospital who was diagnosed with Leukemia in the summer of 2015 when he was only in Grade 5.

Jack shared the many trips of chemotherapy he endured and the various procedures he and his family faced. Many in the George McDougall gym couldn’t hold back their tears, as they listened to a young teenager share his story of battling cancer with everything he had.

Although he is now in remission, Jack says he still travels back to the Children’s Hospital for ongoing treatment as a result of the effects of the chemotherapy.

He says that seeing the support from George McDougall students during their Ride was unbelievable.

“It’s awesome to see that kids are helping out to raise money to fight childhood cancer and other cancer. It’s great to see that.”

Jordyn Semeniuk also spoke on behalf of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. The Program Coordinator for the Kids Helping Kids initiative hopes that the Ride of The Mustang will continue for years to come.

“To see the community really rally behind this event is amazing and every year it just keeps momentum and gets bigger and bigger. It’s really inspirational and really exciting to see.”

Semeniuk says that the money raised this year will go towards the oncology unit at the hospital.

Once all the speeches were done, the big moment finally came as the student leadership team presented the cheque with this year’s total.

To a thunderous applause the amount of $98, 201 was announced as the total for the Ride, which brings their eight-year total to around $860, 000.