It kind of came to light about five years ago when we realized that we needed to up our fundraising efforts as the need in Yorkton continued to grow for funding for families and athletes.
— Shawna Taylor
The Yorkton KidSport Committee has brought back one of their most successful fundraisers from the past few years, as the Yorkton KidSport Street Hockey Tournament is back for its fourth installment.
“We took a break from holding this event last year but we’re back again this year and ready to go,” said Yorkton KidSport committee member Shawna Taylor, adding that the reason the street hockey tournament idea came to life in the first place was because the committee needed a way to raise more funds with a single event. “It kind of came to light about five years ago when we realized that we needed to up our fundraising efforts as the need in Yorkton continued to grow for funding for families and athletes.
“The cost of sport was rising, so we decided that we couldn’t get away with just doing our annual hot dog sale fundraisers like we used to do, and we needed to put on a larger scale fundraising even, so it came to the idea of putting on a street hockey tournament and it’s been very well received by the community as well as the business community.”
Last year Yorkton KidSport distributed over 45-thousand dollars towards helping local youth get involved in minor sports, with all the money that the organization raised going right back into the community. “All that money really does go directly back into the community organizations like minor baseball, minor football, gymnastics, martial arts, archery, figure skating, just to name a few,” mentioned Taylor, adding that the KidSport Committee is made up completely of volunteers, meaning not a single cent is spent on wages. “Our committee is all volunteer ran here in Yorkton, so we have no overhead here.
“We’re just a group of people that have a vested interest in our community and want kids to be able to participate in organized sport programs.”
Taylor also mentioned that while they already have eight teams registered for the street hockey tournament, they’re still accepting registrations for more teams. Teams must be co-ed and consist of eight out players and a goaltender.
Yorkton KidSport is also still looking for more sponsors for the event, including raffle prizes and Presenting, Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsors. To contact the organization about sponsoring the event, call Shawna at: (306) 786-0559 or send an email to [email protected].
The Street Hockey tournament is scheduled to take place Saturday, May 7 in the Yorkton Kinsmen Arena parking lot. Registration is at 9:00a.m., with hockey action beginning a half an hour later.
