By Justine Kelsie

People using strength to raise money for United Way

May 19, 2018 | 6:26 AM

Teams of people will use a 30-foot rope to pull an 80,000-pound fire truck to raise money for the United Way Alberta Northwest.

The first annual Fire Truck Pull is set to take place on May 26. Executive Director Jamie Craig says they got the idea from another United Way in the province.

“We wanted to do a plane pull. The United Way in Calgary works with UPS and does a plane pull on the tarmac. We realized we couldn’t get a UPS plan, so we hooked up with Fort St John, Northern BC United Way. This will be their seventh or eighth year doing their fire truck pull. We decided then to do a fire truck,” said Craig.

She says they are focusing on more large fundraisers throughout the year and the Truck Pull will replace the mid-summer Food Truck Frenzy. The aim is to have two or three major events and continue to collect money throughout the year.

“Ninety per cent of our funding stays in Grande Prairie. We help Big Brothers Big Sisters, YMCA, Seniors Outreach, PACE, we have 32 community partners. Twenty-eight of them are programs or organizations right here in Grande Prairie.”

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The hope is to raise $20,000 at the fundraiser this May. Craig says they are currently in the final push and still accepting teams that would like to show off their strength. The event goes at the Revolution Park south parking lot with a kid’s zone.

Registration is open for teams online and a Facebook page is set up as well.

Local resident Blaine Stavast will be the only one pulling the truck alone, using a harness and anchor rope, similar to the video of him shown below.