Vancouver’s Canary Derby raises over $100K

Spectators lined Water Street on Sunday to watch soapbox racecars take on the bricks of Gastown as they competed in speed, style, and fundraising categories to raise money for cancer early detection. Twenty-one teams from the Vancouver and Victoria technology community entered their soapbox racecars during the first annual Vancouver Canary Derby and over $100,000 was raised to benefit the Canary Foundation of Canada and the BC Cancer Foundation.

The Canary Soapbox Derby has been running in Victoria for the last three years and this year was the first time the Derby was held in Vancouver. And you could tell. While Vancouver’s entries took an early lead with Alea Software securing the prize in the style category, Vancity’s best were no competition for the veteran racers from our province’s capital. Victoria sent four of their Canary Derby teams to compete and they swept the podium +1 with the four fastest times of the day. Schneider Electric took the top speed category honours with a speed of 35.44 km/h and time of 19.46 seconds.

Webnames.ca took the most important honors of the day with the fundraising trophy thanks to raising $14,000 of the total $105,000 raised by the event. All proceeds of the Canary Derby will support Canary early detection research projects at BC Cancer Agency, a world leader in cancer research and care. Congrats to everyone involved.



Canary Derby 2008 – Gastown Vancouver from Webnames.ca Inc on Vimeo.