Image: Surrey teacher Elaine Chong returns with the 12th annual Zumbathon for Cancer fundraiser on Friday, June 6, 2025. / Doug Doi / Zumbathon for Cancer

By Alyssa Conti

CANCER FUNDRAISER

Fraser Valley teacher hosts 12th annual Zumbathon for Cancer fundraiser

Jun 1, 2025 | 9:40 AM

SURREY — A beloved Surrey high school teacher is taking steps, spins and grooves to raise funds for cancer research with the 12th annual Zumbathon for Cancer.

On Friday, June 6, Elaine Chong will be hosting the yearly Zumbathon in Fleetwood Park Secondary. Despite working a full-time teaching job, part-time fitness instruction, and raising children, Chong remains committed to the event, owing to a long history of cancer in her family.

“My sister is the middle child, and my brother was a year and a half when he passed away, being the oldest. So, two out of the three siblings, myself excluded, have been diagnosed with cancer,” she told Fraser Valley Today.

When she started Zumbathon in 2014, it was a means to a hopeless situation. Roughly 100 people came for an hour of Zumba, earning just over $1,000 from the pot. Now, the event draws more than double the dancers and has raised nearly $80,000– with some participants returning every year.

“I have a few cancer survivors and people going through treatment that have attended Zumbathon, and they just tell me that the hour there just energizes them and motivates them,” shared Chong.

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Growing support

As the event grows in scale, so does the help she gets from the community she’s built.

“I think what’s really lovely about this event is the people that generously give their time, and they do it almost yearly,” Chong said. “For example, the instructors, it used to be just me until I got pregnant. I implemented some guest instructors who get on stage and do a song for me, and I’ve not changed it since that day.”

She also mentioned several long-time supporters, including a graduate’s father volunteering as a photographer since the fifth Zumbathon, an instructor’s son taking over his dad’s work when health kept him from DJing, and countless more students who help with prep and execution the night of the event.

It’s exactly the kind of support she needs to organize the growing community.

“I don’t have time to stop. My joke to the kids is always that when my legs break off, that’s when I’ll stop […] I’m very focused on the attention and the goal for this event.”

Anyone interested in donating can bring cash at the door or visit the Zumbathon for Cancer fundraising page online.