Катерер проехал пять дней на роликах, собрав 75 тысяч долларов на ремонт катка в Роканвилле

Blade Across the Prairies raised $75,000 for Rocanville Rink. The initiative was to raise funds for structural repairs on the rink in the community of Rocanville. Dion Campbell of Rocanville rollerbladed for five days from Walsh, Alberta to the Saskatchewan-Manitoba Border past Fleming. Campbell ended the Blade Across the Prairies fundraiser on July 1 when friends and family met him at the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border, and a celebration was held at the rink in Rocanville Thursday, July 2. Cambell says his journey started out with some challenging days due to rainy weather. “It was a journey. We started on Saturday, June 27. We didn’t start off with the best weather for the first two or three days. Those days definitely set us up to go through the challenging part, but it was all worth it. It was five days, so I was pretty happy with it. “There were definitely some highs and lows on the journey. The first couple of days, just outside of Walsh, we were dealing with quite a few hills. Hills aren’t the easiest things with the inclines, so a lot of ups and downs, and then also having to do it in the rain and the wind. That was difficult, but we pushed through.” Huge support along highway Campbell said he had a lot of support and cheers while rollerblading along Number 1. “It was pretty awesome. We got a lot of honks, a lot of semi truck drivers giving honks, a lot of people waving and people taking videos as I was cruising, and on every incline or every hill that I had to get up, I always got a lot of honks from a lot of folks. That was always awesome to see, because I needed that little extra push.” Biggest motivation Campbell says his biggest motivation was the community throughout his five days rollerblading across the province. “I was doing this for the community and for the rink, so that was a big motivation for me, and the personal challenge of all the training that I put into it before this journey. There is a lot of prep work that went into it, and a lot of reasons for my boys, too. They learned that if you put in some hard work, that hard work pays off, so I just wanted to always have that in my mind, just keep pushing yourself, and get out of my comfort zone.” Blade Across the Prairies started Saturday, June 27 with the first overnight stay at the Alberta-Saskatchewan Border at Walsh, Alberta. “Day one we didn’t have much sleep at night,” said Campbell. “We didn’t get to Walsh until about 12:30am and to sleep around 1am, and then we were up at 5am. We slept at one of those rest areas, and there were a lot of semi trucks cruising in and out of there every 20 minutes, that kept waking us up. Adrenaline got me through the first day, and then probably day two would have been the toughest because it just rained so much. “I was so surprised that my wheels could handle that much rain because I had to change my stride, so very short strides. I just thought if I could keep that stride and keep pushing for those 104 kilometres. My goal was to accomplish somewhere between 100 and 150 kilometres each day.” He says the wind was a big challenge at the beginning of his journey. “I didn’t really account for how many hills there would be, when you’re driving no one’s ever really paying attention, so until you’re in it on roller blades and you’re climbing and you’ve got to go straight up, and the first two or three days were right into the wind. The wind can slow you down from five to even 15 kilometres, so my average speed during a lot of it, especially from Regina to Moosomin I was between 20 and 30 kilometres an hour, and at the beginning, looking at my watch that tracks all that, it was like 12 kilometres an hour because of the wind and hills. The wind was pushing right on my face, and then the rain didn’t help either.” Huge push on last day Blade Across the Prairies ended Wednesday, July 1 at the Saskatchewan-Manitoba Border. Campbell roller bladed around 180 kilometres that day to end the journey. “The first two days was around 102 to 104 kilometres then we did 124 the third day, and then day four, I think we pushed to like 150 and then yesterday it was between 175 to 185 kilometres. Our last day was our fastest day.” “We got up really early at Indian Head on Wednesday. We were up at 5am, and hit the highway early to beat a lot of trucks, so we can fly a bit, and then I did 82 kilometres right to Broadview, and I was feeling great. So we had a bite to eat in Broadview, and a few visits with people, and a lot of people donated money there. We were just sitting there, and people were pumped to see us, and then I thought we can push a little bit more. So we jumped back on the road, and we pushed to Wapella, and then right when I got to Wapella, I really wanted to eat, but they were kind enough to have the fire truck waiting there for an escort right when I got there. So they escorted me for about 10 kilometres. “My goal then was to get to Bri-Ma-Del to stop to eat, but we stopped just before there, and had a break. My wife and kids came to see me because they were missing me, and I was missing them.” “They wanted to come join the convoy, and so we had pizza, and then I looked down at my watch and it was only 3:30pm and I said, ‘I’m going to change my wheels because my blades were absolutely soaked—every day was a wet day, there was no easy, sunny day—we dealt with the rain, but on the last day I had the best west wind a person could ask for. It was pushing me right along and I didn’t want to lose that west wind, so we changed the wheels. We had a dryer for my roller blades, so we had that on there for an hour and a bit, and then we just had a quick conversation with the committee, and they told me it was up to me if I wanted to go further since I had already done 130 kilometres that day, and they said, ‘You either can stay and rest in Wapella, or you can just go for it,’ and I said ‘let’s go for it! Let’s not lose the light. We still have a lot of time.’ And then Dallyn Holmstrom of the Moosomin RCMP was kind enough to provide the escort halfway between Wapella and Moosomin, and that was awesome because every truck slowed down.” Supper held in Rocanville to thank supporters The community of Rocanville held a celebration on Thursday night to thank supporters and congratulate Campbell on his successful journey. “The community and committee held a supper at the rink to show our support and our appreciation to everyone who supported the fundraiser. I was overwhelmed with the amount of support. I was blown away. “It was great to see all the people at the Saskatchewan border on Wednesday evening. I had one nice group of people in Wapella, who were waving me on with signs and that gave me extra adrenaline. It was great to see the crowd at Moosomin. I was excited to see people appreciate something like this because it’s kind of out of the ordinary in terms of fundraisers, so it felt awesome. “I felt extremely grateful when I was roller blading, and then getting to the border in Saskatchewan, it was overwhelming.” Group determination Campbell explains the committee and community worked hard to bring the Blade Across the Prairies fundraiser to fruition. “We talked about this at the end of February, start of March, when I brought this up about roller blading across the Prairies, and at first it is just something you think about, put it on paper, and then the people that put the work into it with making posters, and coming up with logistics. “It was a team effort, and to see how far we’ve come, it was pretty amazing. The sacrifices that you know people had to make as well—first and foremost—my wife, she had to watch our four boys while I was away, which is not the easiest of tasks when you’re on your own. People definitely had to sacrifice a lot for it, and then obviously Gary Campbell and Dwight Reavie, the drivers, they switched out and the patience those guys had with having to deal with me the whole time, like when I want to go, when I want to stop, they were great. It was an awesome journey and great to see all the support from communities all over.”