May is KidSport Month and there will be a new face heading up one of their major fundraisers.
Spending a night perched on a scissor lift wasn’t Dwight Bergstrom’s idea of a good time, but if it helps raise more money for Prince Albert’s KidSport chapter, he was more than willing to do it. This year, however, motivational speaker and business owner Cody Demarais has agreed to take Bergstrom’s place.
Bergstrom said that age is part of the reason he wants to step away.
“I had a heart attack three years ago, and I thought, ‘my God, I guess I am fallible,’ he explained. “I just got thinking that if we don’t change the face of this scissor-lift event, and something should happen to me, the thing could just completely end up going nowhere.”
For several years, Bergstrom would spend the night on a scissor lift if Prince Albert residents donated $10,000 to KidSport during the month of May. After his health issues he took a break for a year before returning last year.
He explained that in every business or organization you have to start thinking about transitioning.
“I’ve known Cody for a long time since he started in business and everything else,” Bergstrom said. “I know where his values fall and I know what KidSport’s philosophy is. I thought there was a very good match there.”
Bergstrom said he has been talking to Demarais for about two years about him making the change.
“We had a little chat here a few days ago and he agreed that it was something that he wanted to put his name on and stand behind and so here we are today,” Bergstrom said.
Demarais said Bergstrom is a convincing person but he also believes in KidSport’s message.
“When I was a younger kid, things got financially tough with my mom losing her job at Weyerhaeuser,” Demarais said. “When I was about 10, 11 years old, that’s when financials got extremely tough in our house. I remember how difficult it was to actually want to play some sports that I wanted to play, like hockey.”
He said he remembers the thrill of having the money to buy equipment whether it was from money from his mother, support from family friends or getting a summer job to pay for items.
“I know how incredible it felt as an 11-year-old young person to be able to play sports when you didn’t think it was able to do so. To be able to possibly help some other kids do that, I mean, I think that’s a blessing actually,” Demarais said.
Bergstrom said that he came from a similar story.
“(My) mom didn’t work in those days. Dad didn’t have a good job until my sister and I left home, and he was able to get on with Weyerhaeuser,” Bergstrom said.
Bergstrom explained that the job at Weyerhauser turned things around for the family after he and his sister had already left home.
“I never even brought up, suggested to my mom and dad playing hockey and stuff like that, because I knew they just couldn’t afford it. It was just going to make them feel bad,” Bergstrom said. He added that there was no organization in Prince Albert like KidSport at that time.
“When I was approached to come on board with KidSport, I just did the same thing (Demarais) did, I thought back to being a child and, what I missed,” Bergstrom explained.
Roughly seven years ago, Bergstrom and the rest of the Prince Albert KidSport chapter were looking for a unique fundraiser that would help more children from low-income families play sports. Bergstrom remembered pole-sitting fundraisers from his youth, where an individual would sit outside on a pole until local residents donated a certain amount of money.
Bergstrom said there is a lot of need for a KidSport fundraiser. He said roughly 35 per cent of the youth population in Prince Albert live below the poverty line. Bergstrom said that Prince Albert is among the highest percentages in these numbers in Saskatchewan.
“We’re hoping these kids are going to grow up in the community and stay in the community and grow up having learned good life skills and good values and all of that type of thing,” he explained. “So much of that happens through sport and can happen through sport, so it’s important that the kids get a crack at this, not just from the sport point of view, but from the personal development, life skills and personal development point of view.”
Demarais could not agree more on how sport can benefit youth.
“I know when I was a kid, When I was in sports, that was the best times,” he said. “When I wasn’t involved in anything, That’s not so good for a person’s health or safety. In between seasons of sports is when I was in trouble.
“More people than have been in a long time can’t afford necessarily all the sports that sports cost nowadays, unfortunately,” he added.
The Scissor lift fundraiser is on Thursday, May 28 at Dr. Java’s Coffee House from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.
There are other events scheduled throughout May including a BBQ Lunch fundraiser that took place on May 4, KidSport Banquet and Entertainment at the Rock Trout Cafe on May 23 between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Bergstrom said that the idea that children cannot do sports hangs over his head and he wonders if he can make more effort in fundraising.
“I just got to think of kids not being able to do this,” he said. “It breaks my heart, when kids don’t get a chance to do sports and that kind of thing.
Bergstrom said that Scissor lift is the big fundraiser for the month.
“That’s a little bit more of a younger man’s game, spending a night up on top of that scissor lift,” Bergstrom said.
He explained that he and his wife Pat would always be donors themselves.
“Everybody would say to me,’ how stupid can you be to contribute money to get yourself into a situation where you have to spend a night on a scissor lift?’ Because Pat would check online and see where we’re at, if we made the 10 grand or not, that I was going to stay
overnight for. If we were short a few 100 bucks, guess who chipped in the few bucks to get me overnighting on the scissor lift,” Bergstrom said.
He plans to do the same for Demarais if the money situation breaks down similarly.
“I’m going to work extra hard on getting to that 10 grand number to make darn sure that Cody has to stay over. This is some of the fun we could have with this kind of thing.”
Demarais hopes the event is a success.
“I look forward to contributing as much as I can, as possibly as much as I can,” Demarais said.
