The Yellowknife Ski Club wasn’t the right place to be Saturday morning if you were a stick-in-the-mud.
Fun, laughter, and being fast on your feet were embraced during the annual CIBC Run For Our Lives Mud Run fundraiser.
About 380 participants gathered at the club to run, jump and crawl through a muddy obstacle course along the trails to finish off with a big splash into, what else, a pool of muddy water.
Tanya Kearney, chairperson for the event, said the run is held each year to raise money to help purchase items for Stanton Territorial Hospital.
“We’ve been doing this since 2017,” she said of the popular race that entails a 24-obstacle course along a three or five-kilometre distance on the ski trail.
“It involves quite a bit of mud and some skill for people that want to participate,” she said.
This year, Kearney said it became more of a family-friendly event with the addition of a deejay and an on-site barbecue.
The more the muddier
Patty Olexin-Lang, the executive director of the Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation, said the event is extremely popular each year.
“We are at about 380 this year. We're really pleased how many people have signed up.
“And we've got probably 30 to 40 volunteers, at least, that have come out,” Olexin-Lang said of the crew and businesses who worked for several weeks setting up the obstacles and preparing ahead of time.
According to the foundation website, over the next three years, the Run For Our Lives committee aspires to raise about $600,000 to purchase four new pieces of cancer-related equipment for Stanton, including a colposcope examination chair, two automated endoscope reprocessors and a breast ultrasound machine.
There is one common thread to which Olexin-Lang attributes the popularity of the event.
“It's about raising money and running for somebody that's been affected by cancer,” she said. “And I think there is a lot of team building. There's families that run because they enjoy running, so they just enjoy getting out there and running as families, and they're active. They want to support the cause, and that's what it's about, is supporting the Run For Our Lives.”
While the fundraising effort continues through September, Olexin-Lang said they currently have received over $80,000 in sponsorships, plus the fundraising amount from participants, which is expected to reach nearly $30,000.
