THUNDER BAY -- Sue Childs has chaired the Bearskin Airlines Hope Classic since founder Linda Buchan passed away of breast cancer in 2002.
Childs' board members say she has lived and breathed the annual curling fundraiser for its entire 20-year history. It wouldn't be difficult to justify awarding her with the organization's top honour but unless they kept it a secret, she wouldn't have it.
Safe to say, she was surprised.
Moments before the check was unveilled to celebrate $180,000 the bonspiel would be donating to the Linda Buchan Centre, Liz Manahan grabbed the microphone from Childs mid-speech and announced the chairwoman as the recipient of the 2016 Linda Lou Award.
"She's an 'A Type' personality so it doesn't matter how many things she's doing, it's always in her mind. She lives it," Manahan said of Childs.
"I had to surprise her because there was no other way she would allow us to do it."
"Linda Lou" was Childs' nickname for Buchan and receiving the award briefly brought tears to her eyes.
"Linda was my best friend so it's a real honour," Childs said afterwards.
Childs shared the award with Cliff Friesen, the former co-owner of Bearskin Airlines.
When Buchan launched the fundraiser in 1996, she approached Friesen for sponsorship as a one-time event. Friesen's 22-year-old daughter was experiencing breast cancer and the airline accepted headline sponsorship that lasted beyond his ownership of the company.
When Friesen took the podium at the 1997 bonspiel, he ended his speech with, "see you next year" and it's longevity has never since been in question.
"I'm really glad I said we'll see you again next year because when you look back at it now, it has done so much for our community -- for anybody who has any relationship with cancer -- and you see the Linda Buchan Centra that's there today. It's so successful at what it does," Friesen said.
"You don't have too many facilities -- if any -- that do what they do."
The weekend's $180,000 fundraiser outpaces 2015's $142,000 donation and brings the Hope Classic's 20-year fundraising total within a year of reaching $3 million for equipment and education related to breast cancer at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
Two decades after the bonspiel began, Childs sees no end in sight.
"We thought we were going to do it for one year," she said.
"As time went on, every year was successful so we never gave it any thought. Who knows? Is it going to be 25? Is it going to be 30? It's a successful event. Why would you stop it? We had 64 teams this year but even if we had 36 teams, we'd still be able to raise money for the hospital."
