Perhaps nothing defines a community more than the spirit its citizens have in terms of supporting local groups and activities.
Without support there would be no groups for our children, no clubs for adults to participate it. The city would become little more than a collection of houses where people live.
Every once in a while there is a weekend which exemplifies just how much community spirit Yorkton people have and this past weekend was certainly one of those.
It started Friday in a field just north of the city.
Through the efforts of several agricultural businesses 200-acres of canola was seeded in the spring as a fundraiser for the Yorkton Terriers Junior Hockey Club. Friday four combines crawled over the fields harvesting the crop.
That night at a thank you barbecue Terrier club president Lyle Walsh related how the annual budget for the club is creeping ever closer to $1 million annually, more than ticket sales and traditional funding sources can handle. The canola crop is a new source of funding, one which should come close to eliminating the team's debt this year.
It would not have happened without machinery dealers taking their combines to the field, without local truckers finding a way to have trucks on-site even in the midst of their busy harvest season.
It is efforts like this which give hockey fans quality Junior hockey to watch, and provide a team for young skaters in the city to aspire too.
Two businesses also held hotdog barbecues in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters in Yorkton.
The weekend also saw walks help in support of cancer research, acquired brain injury support and AIDS awareness and research.
In the case of the Terry Fox Run the legacy of supporting good causes was shown to be alive and well in the city's young people as students from both Yorkton Regional High School and Sacred Heart High School gathered Friday morning to walk in support of the cause.
Saturday local Boy Scouts, Cubs and Beavers, and Girl Guides were among the volunteers at the TD Financial Tree Planting held at York Lake. It was yet another example of youth learning from experience to participate in making our community a better place to live.
Of course Yorkton has a long heritage of volunteerism, and that too was shown on the weekend as the Army Navy and Air Force Veterans Auxiliary celebrated its 50th anniversary with a supper in the city Sunday. The ladies have been doing good work in the city for decades donating to groups including Camp Easter Seal, Sunrise Health, Anderson Lodge, Sask Abilities Council, Salvation Army, Yorkton Band Boosters, Special Olympics, and Shelwin House.
It is a weekend like the one just past where we can all be proud of how committed many in our city are and how their efforts make Yorkton such a great city to live in.
