Family celebrates Evelyn Roy's 12th birthday by raising $59K for cancer research with driveway dance party

Evelyn Roy's 12th birthday would have been Aug. 6.

In recognition of the special day, her friends and family threw an epic, all-day driveway dance party and managed to raise $59,000 in her name for the Alberta Children's Hospital.

"Evelyn would have loved this. She would have been the busiest dancer on the street.I don't think we would have got her to stop," said Evelyn's mom, Heather Roy.

"Evelyn wouldn't want us to sit around and be sad today. She would want us to remember her just exactly the way she was, joyful and happy and dancing."

Evelyn battled neuroblastoma for the past two years. She passed away in late February, at age 11.

"As we were coming up to today, and we were making plans, it felt impossible to plan a birthday party for our girl," Roy said. "It felt even more impossible to let this day go by with nothing for her."

The Roy family decided to go all outwith a celebration of Evelyn's life and a fundraiser for cancer research, and to launchthe Team Evelyn Foundation on her birthday.

The event had Disney princesses, drag queenperformers, a photo booth truck, individually wrapped snacks and dancing.

"Evelyn was happy, she was joyful, she was the kind of kid who would do burpees when she was receiving chemotherapy," Roy said.

"She loved people, she loved community and she loved to dance. So we are dancing and dancing big for her, and we are playing all her favourite music."

Evelyn and her sister Harper, along withneighbours Hayden and Lily Crawford, called themselves The Fab Four.

The three friends set up a lemonade stand they called "Life Gave Us Lemons Lemonade"and ran it throughout the day.

Evelyn's parents want to help other families who are going through the same thing with a sick child.

"Through the journey of being in treatment for almost two years, there's lots of support available professionally in the hospitals, but there's even more support through parents and families who have been through the journey before," said Mike Roy, Evelyn's father.

"It's important to fill the gaps where the health system can't other parents who realize where the shortcomings are, who know that sometimes you just need to sit with someone in the hospital, or talk with someone on the phone, or know that a certain type of bill isn't covered."

One of Evelyn's life goals was to raise money for cancer research, and that's what inspired the fundraising goal of $50,000.

"There's a donor wall in the hospital, ironically right outside of oncology and we would walk by that wall and Evelyn would say, 'Mama, someday I'm going to raise so much money helping people in this hospital that my name will be on that wall.' To get on that wall, it's a minimum $50,000," Roy said.

"So we're getting her name on that wall."

At the halfway point, with donations climbing past $20,000, Roy said she was feeling good.

"I feel really energized by the love of everyone here, and I feel like Evelyn's spirit and presence is so strong with us today for her 12th birthday," she said. "This just felt like absolutely the right choice in building a legacy for her, to have a big dance party for her and do all the things she loved."

As it turns out, Evelyn's name will be on that wall.

Evelyn's Epic Driveway Dance Partyraised $59,000.