YORKTON – Hundreds of trucks were parked at Yorkton's Home Hardware Building Centre April 20th to pay tribute to the memory of local football athlete Kane Procyshen.
The gathering filled the entirety of the Home Hardware parking lot as well as a portion of the empty lot adjacent to the business.
"We figured we'd have a meet to bring family and friends together," said event co-organizer, Jayden Halliday in an interview with SASKTODAY.ca, adding, "he really loved trucks and what not so I figured it'd be great to have all of our friends together and show the family some respect."
"We were only expecting 50-60 trucks and then it blew up and appeared to be 250 trucks," said event co-organizer Lucas Baillie.
Sweaters and stickers donning Procyshen's number 68 were on sale for supporters with all proceeds going to Procyshen's family.
"The proceeds were all going towards the family and the family decided to put the money that we raised towards Yorkton Gridders Football," said Halliday.
With the attendance of trucks being around 250, the two said that the amount of people who attended was nearly double that.
"Most vehicles that showed up were all packed full of people ... I'd say almost double — maybe 300-400 people," said Halliday, "it was an amazing turnout."
"Big thank you to Home Hardware for letting us use there lot," said Baillie, "it was a windy day and they opened up one of there bays so that we could put a table in there and all the sweaters and stickers ... it helped out a lot."
The two friends' of Procyshen said that after the gathering the trucks cruised Broadway Street in a tribute to their friend's passing.
Procyshen, who tragically passed away last month, spent several years involved in football programs in the city, both as an athlete and a coach.
In June of 2023 Procyshen signed on to play with the Candian Junior Football League's Vancouver Island Raiders where he anchored the offense. After a season with the Raiders, Procyshen returned to Yorkton for the off-season.
According to Procyshen's obituary, on March 5, 2023 he received news that he made the U20 World Juniors Team Canada.
Memorial donations may be made to the Yorkton & District Community Foundation as gifts of remembrance.