St. Albert's premiere charity bowling event is still set to take place next weekend but its organizers are hoping to fill a few more lanes before the big day.
Strikes for Cancer has been struggling to sign up participants, and that is putting the event in danger of being less successful than the previous year.
"It's a typical slog right now," said Marvin Babiuk. "We're getting close to about 10 lanes … but, compared to year over year, we're kind of behind the eight ball a little bit. In this case, behind the five pin."
Babiuk is one of the key players trying to orchestrate the event behind the scenes. His son, Jaden, started Strikes three years ago when he was only six.
Each year the event has seen progressively greater returns, with the 2011 edition reaching a record $16,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. That brought the three-year total to more than $35,000.
Babiuk believes that momentum is just a little slower to build this time around. He knows there are already a lot of people interested who just haven't signed up yet.
"We're still moving along. People are talking about it; they're excited. We just hope that we can fill up but it's probably going to take until the last minute."
He added that it's not a typical day of bowling, saying that participants can expect a lot of frames and a lot of games.
"You can be completely inexperienced at bowling and you can still have a lot of fun. Enjoy lunch, win some great prizes, bid on some wonderful silent auction items and know that the moneys raised will help go to the research arm at the Canadian Cancer Society. We're just hoping that more people can register sooner rather than later and have a packed house."
Visit www.strikesforcancer.com for more information or to register. It takes place at the St. Albert Bowling Centre from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 27.
A great run in the wild
The second annual RunWild Marathon lived up to its name two weeks ago, with 1,620 participants hitting most of the streets in the city. That's approximately the same mark that the event hit during its inaugural run last year. Then there were the more than 400 volunteers who helped put the show on. It was, indeed, a crowded day, according to event sponsor Grant Fedoruk.
"I don't know what the total number of people through the entire area was but by the time you factor in the parents and families, it was just a fantastic day with a ton of locals out to enjoy the day. The weather was great."
Apart from the attendance, Fedoruk said the event was also successful in the amount of money raised, which is split between its two charities of choice: the Zebra Child Protection Centre and the St. Albert Senior Citizen's Centre. A final tally hasn't yet been reached, however.
"Some money is coming in and some money is going out just to finish up," Fedoruk said. "We're hoping to be somewhere around where we were last year with the donation. We don't know for sure. We do know that we'll probably be in the two-year total of somewhere around $130,000. Not bad."
Learn more about the event and the charities at www.runwild.ca.
