La Ronge and Area Kidsport has received $2,500 from the Co-Op’s recent Fuel Good Day fundraiser which will go toward children’s sports registration fees.

Co-Op’s Fuel Good Day is an annual event which happened on Sept. 15 this year.

The fundraiser pledged 10 cents of every litre sold at the La Ronge and Air Ronge Co-op gas bars to Kidsport.

Kristy McDougall, the committee chair for the La Ronge region Kidsport, said the organization greatly appreciates the fact the Lake Country Co-Op branch chose to make a sizeable contribution this year.

“They opted for the Lake Country Co-Op area to do 10 cents a litre, so I’m not sure if that’s been every year or just this year so we were really fortunate that it was this year,” she said.

McDougall said Kidsport applied to be a recipient of the Co-op initiative because it was unable to hold its own annual three-on-three basketball tournament fundraiser this year because of COVID-19.

“Without having that (three-on-three fundraiser) this year, it put us a little bit at risk without having a main fundraiser and this (Fuel Good Day) more than sufficed for us to be able to hold us over for the year until we get into better economic times.”

She said the organization also saw other challenges from the pandemic as they are unable to be present at sport registration sessions and other events, making it more difficult to connect with the public.

McDougall said Kidsport is also preparing for the number of registrations to go up next year, as COVID-19 continues to cause the number of children registering in sports this year to decline.

“We know by next year we’ll see things starting to go back a little more to normal, sports registrations going up so the need will be even greater then.”

(PHOTO: The Lake County Co-op held its annual Fuel Good Day fundraiser on Sept. 15. Photo courtesy Kristy McDougall.)