Skip to content

Yk Hero's raise funds at gumboot rally

While Iron Man and the rest of The Avengers tried to save the world from Thanos onscreen at the Capitol Theatre, some local superheroes were down the street fighting for a good cause of their own at the 2018 Gumboot Rally.

Dylan Short/NNSL photo
The Speech Thorapists jump into the competition at the 2018 Gumboot Rally.
May 5, 2018

'Be A Hero' was the theme of this year's rally as 15 teams came together to raise $24,363 for Yellowknife Association of Community Living (YKACL) programs, the second largest sum of money ever raised at the annual event.

“The year that we raised more we had 20 teams. The fact that, this many teams raised that much is extraordinary,” said YACKL executive director Lynn Elkin.

This year's version saw 13 of the 15 teams gather in the Yellowknife Education District No. 1's parking lot Saturday morning to compete in a number of gumboot themed events.

A gumboot basketball toss, a marble roll and gumboot bowling were some of the challenges that the teams competed in before they were treated to a barbecue.

“It's the best opportunity to show support for the community, it's a great event put on by community living to show their support,” said Satish Garikaparthi, a team member with the N.J. Macpherson school's stick-man themed team.

There were new and repeat teams alike competing throughout the day, all with their own reasons for competing and fundraising for the association.

Jill Alain, team captain for the Speech Thorapists, a team comprised of speech therapists with the Stanton Territorial Health Authority, was in for the third consecutive year.

“As speech therapists, we work a lot with individuals with intellectual disabilities and often there's a lot of services for kids and then when the kids grow up, they can sometimes fall off the map, so YKACL is a great organization to support because they support those adults,” said Alain.

All of the money raised from the rally will go directly to YKACL programs, such as employment services and a literary outreach center to support individuals living with intellectual and other disabilities.

Awards were given to the best dressed team, as well as the team and individuals that raised the most amount of money. Karen Lajoie won top fundraiser, raising $4,080 and Beyond a Reasonable Trout was the top fundraising team, with $8,953. N.J. Macpherson won best dressed.