A Thunder Bay holiday tradition is in new hands.
The Ischkinakker Shaker, a fundraising party held every December, is being taken over by the GenNext arms of the United Way of Thunder Bay, with net proceeds from the event directed to the charity’s annual campaign.
With this year’s campaign struggling, at just 46 per cent with slightly more than a month to go and $1.47 million left to collect, every little bit helps, said campaign chairman Walter Flasza at a news conference held Wednesday at the Regional Food Distribution Association. “I’m a little bit nervous, but I’m confident that we have a solid team out there. We’re closing employee campaigns. We’re approaching people for donations. We’ve got a couple of new events on track, including this event we announced here today,” Flasza said. “I wish I could say I was confident that we were going to hit the goal. It’s going to take a lot of work and we just want to remind people that it’s oh so important to support the United Way, from the standpoint of the family, the friends and the coworkers and neighbours in our community that benefit from the programs that we fund.”
A mainstay of the holiday season for a decade, the Ischkinakker Shaker was started by Katie Ischkin and John De Bakker in 2004 as a way to bring friends back together at Christmastime. With so many people leaving town for school and work, but returning to Thunder Bay for the holidays, it was a great chance for a fun-filled reunion, gathering everyone at the CLE.
Along the way it’s manage to raise more than $120,000 for charity.
GenNext’s Dane Hatton said his group is honoured to take on the event and add to the campaign coffers year in and year out.
Hatton said fun events like the Ischkinakker Shaker are right up GenNext’s alley. “It just seemed like such a perfect fit to bring on the Ischkinakker Shaker. They’ve done such a good job over the years raising money for local charities. We thought what a great way to get money filtered into the United Way and also have a continuous group of young people to help run the event,” Hatton said.
Advance tickets are on sale at www.unitedway-tbay.on.ca for $10 or can be purchased at the door on Dec. 23 for $15.
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