A new footrace in Nipawin aims to invite the community into the grounds of the Nipawin Bible College.
The first annual Nipawin Country Run, held Aug. 5 also had a more practical purpose.
“It’s a fundraiser to replace the roof on the Rempel Auditorium,” said Joel Houston, the race director and a teacher at the college. “It’s suffered a fair amount of corrosion over the years and so it’s going to be a pretty substantial financial undertaking to replace it.”
Estimates range from nearly $90,000 to $250,000, depending on the method used to fix the roof.
The 35 participants could either race in a 2K, 5K or 10K race.
Houston said they had the idea to hold the race from the Big River Bible Camp, which has a charity run every year.
“We were talking to them, and they said it’s great in terms of manageable size, community accessibility. All those things led us to say there’s lots of runners up in Nipawin, there’s not a lot of foot races, so this is a community need and we can meet that – and meet our own ends too.”
The scenery of the race included the main campus, the college’s array of solar panels, paths through some fields and hilly woodland. There was also snacks for those that finished the race and a bouncy obstacle course for the kids.
Houston said the challenge was figuring out all of the logistics for the race.
“You just do some research and ask what do you need: water stations, volunteers, stuff like that, so just never had done it before was the biggest challenge.”
The race director said the facility and staff of the college pulled together to make the event possible.
The plan is to do the event next year.
“This year’s sort of a prototype event and we’re really going to try and scale it up next year.”
Houston said even though the event is a fundraiser where people collect pledges to fix the roof, the college wants to see the community come out, so fundraising is not a requirement to participate.
