Our history

Commitment is contagious: just take a look at the Sainte-Justine Private Schools Youth Challenge!

From a few hundred students and a single school in 2008, tens of thousands of youths from over 40 private schools across Québec are now making history as part of the biggest philanthropic movement ever on behalf of the children of the CHU Sainte-Justine.

2018 - 2019

The Youth Challenge is celebrating its 10th anniversary! A wonderful year of festivities that will culminate when we achieve our ambitious goal of raising $5M to support the CHU Sainte-Justine Centre of Excellence in Traumatology. The 3DLS Challenge is back this year with a new formula.

2017 - 2018

Our official spokespersons and favourite Olympians Justine, Chloé and Maxime dare you to take up the 3DLS Challenge this year: 5 tasks for which medals in the colours of the Youth Challenge will be awarded. All the details can be found in the 3DLS Challenge section.

2016 - 2017

The growing philanthropic movement, now called the Sainte-Justine Private Schools Youth Challenge, gets an Olympic makeover just in time to welcome our new spokespersons, who are none other than our three favourite olympians: Chloé, Justine and Maxime Dufour-Lapointe

2015 - 2016

Emmanuel Mavridakis, the 15-year-old survivor of a severe car crash that cost him the use of his legs, and Mathieu Darche, former player for the Montreal Canadiens, encourage students to raise $700,000. The kids hear them loud and clear, raising a total of $730,000!

2014 - 2015

Florence Boucher, the 14-year-old survivor of a severe accident which occurred in 2011, and rising Québec pop star Olivier Dion become the spokespersons for the “Défi-Jeunesse 1km”. Some 35,000 students from 44 private schools raise a total of $672,650.

2013 - 2014

The Youth Challenge and its Steering Committee pledge a total of $5,000,000 to the CHU Sainte-Justine Centre of Excellence in Trauma Care over the next few years. The Youth Challenge goes on to receive the Jury’s Favourite Award on National Philanthropy Day.

2012 - 2013

Over 32,000 students from 38 private schools raise close to $850,000 for the Traumatology Services of the CHU Sainte-Justine in order to save more children, and save them better, through the purchase of a mobile medical imaging device.

2011 - 2012

Over 33,000 youths from 42 schools race a total of 153,765 km (!) during what has become the “Défi-Jeunesse 1km des écoles privées pour Sainte-Justine”!

A record amount of $1,113,756 is donated to the CHU Sainte-Justine for the purchase of an EVA (a virtual anesthesia monitor), which measures the vital signs of a patient in real time throughout a surgical operation.

2010 - 2011

Ten private schools from Laval, the Laurentians and Lanaudière join the movement started by Académie Lafontaine. The “Course 3L pour l’enfance” is born.

The result? Some 10,000 students raise a total of $450,000, which allows the CHU Sainte-Justine Intensive Care Unit to purchase no less than 29 smart beds!

2008 - 2010

Inspired by the courage of Étienne, a friend who survived cancer, the students of Académie Lafontaine get together to participate in the “Course de l’Espoir”.

Together, they raise close to $200,000, enabling the CHU Sainte-Justine Neonatology Services to acquire a mobile incubator, two fetal monitors and a newborn-sized cardiac defibrillator.