10-year-old Tallyn Spring hosts birthday skate to raise funds for Alberta Children’s Hospital

Tallyn Spring hosted her annual Birthday Skate Saturday at Cardel Rec Centre to raise funds for the Alberta Children's Hospital.

Tallyn Spring is turning 10 in February and celebrated with friends, family and a few Calgary Hitmen Saturday.

Spring hosted her annual birthday skate at the Cardel Arena in the southeast, where there was hot chocolate, coffee and cookies on hand for skaters who brought a donation instead of a present.

Since she was three years old, Spring has hosted an annual fundraiser for the neurosurgery department at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

Tallyn’s big sister Lettie, who is 13, has had three brain surgeries to help her deal with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, among 11 surgeries.

For her fourth birthday, Tallyn threw a party but instead of presents, asked for donations to the hospital.

After her mom told her she couldn’t just ask people for donations because she was cute, she came up with 30 different five-minute challenges as a five-year old and then launched her annual Birthday Skate when she turned 6.

Tallyn has raised around $29,000 over the years.

“It’s important, because I support my sister’s needs, and I raise the money to try to give the money to the hospital so then they can do more research and try and cure my sister,” Tallyn said.

Saturday, Tallyn also announced the first-ever Pediartic Neurosurgery Awareness Day, which will be on Feb. 6.

Why skating?

“I decided to do skating because I love just skating in general in the winter, so it’s like a really fun activity.”

In 2025, Spring received the King Charles Coronation Award in recognition of her fundraising efforts.

With files from CTV’s Darren Wright