A challenge that saw community members dump mud on themselves – including Cabin Radio’s own hosts and minister Caroline Wawzonek – has raised more than $76,000 for the Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation.
The Mud Bucket Challenge fundraiser replaced the CIBC Run for Our Lives Mud Run, an event that has taken place for the past three years but was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
This year, teams could nominate friends, families, and local businesses to complete the mud bucket challenge. Some participants created events to see how much people would pay to dump mud on them.
Josh Firth, community general manager for CIBC in the NWT, said about 39 teams participate in the altered fundraiser.
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“It was an interesting year to say the least,” he said. “A lot of fundraisers just changed a lot.
“Against all odds, we actually had a great fundraising year.”
The funds have yet to be assigned to a specific project at the hospital. Firth says they will be used to buy equipment and services related to cancer treatment.
“Each year, the hospital provides the foundation with a wish list of items,” Patty Olexin-Lang, the foundation’s executive director, was quoted as saying.
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“We try to purchase as many of these items as possible or we work towards purchasing a large piece of equipment.”
Last year, funds from the mud run helped purchase a VeinViewer Vision2, a machine that projects a patient’s vein pattern onto their skin in real time.
It helps medical staff see and understand a patient’s blood pattern and reduces the number of needle-sticks required.
Firth hopes next year’s fundraiser will be able to return to a mud run and obstacle course, pending public health orders.
According to the fundraiser’s website, donations are being accepted until December 31.
