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YORKTON – Runners gathered at the Yorkton Regional High School on the morning of August 21 to participate in the Health Foundation's Charity Road Race.
Several races were part of the yearly fundraising effort including a 5 km, 10 km, 2 km junior race, 10 km relay race as well as a community walk.
"There were 176 participants," said Ross Fisher, Executive Director of the Health Foundation, in an interview with Yorkton This Week.
"We're still going through everything, but it looks like we'll have raised a little over $23,000," said Fisher of the fundraising efforts.
"The Charity Road Race has played out in a much different way for the past two years as it was conducted as a virtual run with participants running on their own or with a few friends while appropriately social distancing," read an article on the Health Foundation's website.
"A lot of events in Saskatchewan closed this year, like running events...P.A.'s, Moose Jaw's, there's a bunch of them," said Fisher, adding, "coming out of COVID there's been some difficulty for events in terms of continuing, so a lot haven't happened across the province," and, "we were happy – we were down a little bit, but I mean we had a reasonably good turnout."
"We had two businesses in particular that helped us generate attendance...Harvest Meats and Crossfit Function," said Fisher.
"In [Crossfit Function's] case, they encouraged members to participate – they had quite a number of people come out and run," said Fisher, adding, "Harvest Meats did the same thing – they had quite a few people come out and run – they had relay teams – so it was good – they really helped us with attendance – our attendance was still fairly strong even though it was down."
Fisher also credited volunteers with the help they provide prior to and during the event.
"We've got to set up, we've got people at all of the corners directing traffic," said Fisher, adding, "we must have – off the top of my head – over twenty-five volunteers that work the day of the event and we have a committee that meets in advance."
