Stikeman Elliott raises $84,000 in Ride to Conquer Cancer

Lawyers, staff and even a client of Stikeman Elliott LLP participated in the recent Ride to Conquer Cancer, raising approximately $84,000 for Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

The team, which is the leading law firm in fundraising, had 21 cyclists who journeyed over 200 kilometres from Toronto to Niagara Falls June 10-11. This is the sixth year the firm has participated in this fundraising event.

“Every member of our firm is touched by [cancer] in some way,” says Mario Paura, partner at Stikeman Elliott LLP and team member on the ride. “To ride as 21 riders strong all day is a very emotional roller coaster when you’re with a couple of cancer survivors and truly riding as one team.”

Members of the firm collected donations from family, friends and clients in order to achieve their individual fundraising goals. If for any reason a team member was struggling to achieve their goal, partners of the firm helped subsidize donations.

“It wasn’t like a few people wrote a few big cheques. It was really grassroots,” says Paura, who’s been on the team each year the firm has participated.

Over the six years that Stikemans has been part of the Ride to Conquer Cancer, the Toronto office has raised nearly $600,000 for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and about $1-million nationally, supporting other cancer initiatives across the country, in rides organized in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the ride, according to Paura, was crossing the finishing line as an entire team and hearing it announced over the PA system to “thousands” of spectators. The team featured seasoned and amateur cyclists.

“We’re quite proud to have rode as a team this year and it really just shows the culture of our firm, that we rally around each other,” says Paura.