SUNDRE – Anyone itching to experience the thrill of riding in a Polaris Slingshot will get their chance this weekend.
The 2024 edition of Sundre Slingfest is swooping back into town July 19-21, and organizers decided to introduce a new element to this year’s annual gathering of slingshot enthusiasts.
“Every year, we always get the request: I want to go for a ride,” Shawna Brackley told the Albertan.
So this time around, organizers – with a little help from willing participants – were all too happy to oblige.
“We have riders that after the event is over … have volunteered to stay and provide their time and their fuel and their fun to take people for a ride to raise money” for McDougal Chapel’s Plus 1 Emergency Food Hamper program, said Brackley, who alongside husband and Slingshot enthusiast Mark Brackley owns and operate Wagons West RV Park, which serves as the event’s home base and staging area.
Following a parting farewell coffee on Sunday, the charity rides to support the food hamper program will start at 10 a.m. at Wagons West and continue on as long as people keep showing up looking for an opportunity to hop in and “go for a little thrill ride,” she said.
As the idea is to raise awareness and funding for the Plus 1 Emergency Food Hamper program, she said there will be a minimum donation of $20 to go for a ride.
“The more the contribution, the longer the ride,” she added.
Additionally, there will also be a unique opportunity for one lucky individual to go on a much longer ride by scoring a spot in the passenger seat of the Slingshot driven by Mark, who will be leading the convoy during Saturday’s poker rally. The rally is intended to showcase Sundre and surrounding areas throughout Mountain View County, she said.
All a person has to do to secure shotgun for a front row seat in the rally, is to place a successful bid during an auction whose proceeds will also benefit the food hamper program, she said.
As of the time she spoke with the Albertan, Brackley said that 32 participants had already registered in advance but that she also anticipated even more would simply show up once things get started, with some even planning to stick around town until next week.
“For the first time since the shut down of the border, we have people from all over the U.S. – finally – that are coming back,” she said, citing states such as Indiana, Montana and Washington.
“We are excited to have the American contingent coming back,” she said, adding some had previously made the trip to Sundre prior to the pandemic.
“This is the first time they’ve come back, so we’re excited,” she added.
The visitors from Canada who are embarking on the longest trip include participants from eastern Manitoba, she said.
“What we’ve of course found in previous years, is people don’t always pre-register, they just come. It’s hard to know what’s actually going to happen until it goes down.”
Asked what drove their decision to introduce this year’s auction and charity ride, Brackley hailed the municipality and town council as the source of inspiration that motivated Mark to find a way to pay it forward to a local service group.
“They still are supporting and sponsoring the scavenger hunt that happens,” she said, referring to funding received through applications to the town’s grants to organizations program.
That event, which essentially kick starts the Slingfest on Friday, amounts to a choose-your-own-adventure free-for-all as participants endeavour to tick all of the items off the scavenger hunt’s list. Aside from a lunch gathering, there are otherwise no structured activities that day as riders are encouraged to explore the area on their own terms, she said.
“We have the riders exploring the town of Sundre, thanks to the Town of Sundre,” she said, praising the municipality’s invested interest in supporting local events.
“There’s so many awesome events that are happening in town and when you see those posters, you always see: Sponsored by the Town of Sundre,” she said.
“It brings an incredible boost to the business community,” she said, adding their own campground recently welcomed folks who’d dropped into town for the Shady Grove Bluegrass Festival.
“That really inspired Mark to be like, ‘Well yeah but, what about the charities?’” she said.
“It’s really great that all of these people are coming and they’re spending all this money in the business community. But how can we reach out and also prop up our own local charity? It was really inspired by the Town of Sundre and their commitment to businesses, and that we could kind of use that momentum that they built for this event to also benefit a charity,” she said.
And “because of that grant, we’re able to use that to get people in the local businesses and exploring the beauty that’s in and around Sundre to entice them to stay a little longer.”
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