The Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair Committee will offer refunds of registration ($60) and t-shirt ($15) payments. Please review and follow the procedure outlined below. For those who paid online through Canada Helps, please follow the procedure below and do not reverse payment through your credit card company (note the transaction will appear on your credit card statement as “Canada Helps”).

The decision to cancel the Fair was not an easy one to make. We worked hard with UBC and explored all options for possible rescheduling of the Fair or transitioning to an online format. No other options were possible given the short timelines and the ever-changing precautions related to the Covid-19 virus. We recognize how disappointed students are to not be able to compete in the GVRSF and showcase their work, but assure you that our committee feels the same crushing disappointment to not be able to proceed with our annual event.

The GVRSF is organized entirely by volunteers, many contributing hundreds of hours of time to plan and organize this three-day fair. The registrations typically account for one third of our revenues, with our committee working to secure sponsors, grants and donations for the remaining two thirds. Many other local events cancelled due to Covid-19 have been unable to offer refunds as the revenues from registration fees and sponsors are already committed with the expenses related to organizing their event. As a volunteer organization we do not have salaries, and office lease, phones etc.  Those expenses that are committed will be covered by our committee through additional fund-raising efforts so that we can provide this refund to the students.

This is the first time in 38 years that we have had to cancel the fair. While the occasional student has needed a refund in the past, we have never needed a process for refunding all registration fees. While our registration system collects the student’s home address, we do not collect the same information for parents or emergency contacts. So our key challenge is knowing what name to put on the cheque and where to send it. We ask for your cooperation in working through this process.

Any registration fees paid by a school will be refunded by cheque directly to the school.

For all individual payments, please provide the following:

Student Name:
Registration ID (the 4-digit number in your online registration):
Amount of Payment:
Amount of Refund Requested:
Name and Mailing address for cheque (please include a phone number as well).

We will process the refund requests as we receive them. I will send out confirmation emails as each batch of cheques goes in the mail, as well as reminder emails to those who have not yet replied regarding this refund.

As we continue to work through these unprecedented times, please do not forget to take care of your own physical and mental health and tosupport those around you.

 – Ceddy Nash Chair (volunteer), Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair

The Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair Society is a federally registered charity (BN: 832888564RR0001). All members of our committee are volunteers, so 100% of funds raised goes towards the fair and the student participants. Please donate online to support our fair, and a receipt will be sent by email within minutes of your donation.