Skate4Smiles in Memory of Dawson Ellert

2011 Skate-a-thon March 27, 2011

The Ellert family is pleased to say our first annual skate-a-thon on March 27th, 2011 was a huge success - far surpassing anything we could have dared to hope for.

With Dawson providing a light snowfall to set the tone, we had around 100 families come out to enjoy the afternoon. There were several children’s activities off the ice such as face painting, coloring, play dough, jelly bean guess, balloons as well as donated drinks and snacks to enjoy. On the ice was no different, the kids enjoyed lots of games while listening to Dawson’s favorite tunes! Our guests also had a chance to win tons of donated prizes. We had some special guests in attendance for the afternoon…K-9 from the Regina Pats came to visit, Mike McCullough from the Roughriders joined us, Global TV was there to do an interview, and the LeaderPost published an excellent article in Monday’s paper.

OK, so maybe the music was a little loud at times but who can’t resist going all the way to maximum when Thunderstruck comes on?

There are still a few pledges and donations coming in and unfortunately, due to the bad roads on the weekend, some were not able to attend but, we are excited and humbled to say we will be able to donate around $35,000 to the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan. Together with the funds from Steak4Smiles, we’ll have raised over $37,000 in Dawson’s memory this year.

The winners of the Skate4Smiles raffle were:

Jarrett Stoll signed LA Kings Jersey: Tammy Simair

iPod Touch: Shelley Redenbach

Lululemon Athletica Prize Package: Lorraine McCormick

Skate4Smiles winners were:

Highest Amount of Money Raised Through Pledges (PS3): Mackenzie Klyne ($1,446.60)

Highest Number of Pledges (iPod Touch):

Nolan & Taylor Johnson (62)

Door Prize (George Foreman Grill):

Penny Johnson

We simply cannot put into words how deeply we appreciate your generous support. Our goal was for everyone to have fun while thinking about Dawson and to raise funds for a very important cause. To all of our business and prize sponsors, the Communiskate rink, our White City and area community and our amazing volunteers, thank you SO much – without your help, we could not have been successful.

We hope you all had a great time. Remember to take time to look around, take in and appreciate the world, smile and love as much as you can... that is what Dawson would want us to do!