THUNDER BAY – The Haunted Harbour was again a success in its third year, raising $18,034.35 for two local charities.
On Tuesday, Our Kids Count and The Transportation Museum of Thunder Bay received a cheques for more than $9,000 each, the proceeds from this year's event.
Sonia Kruger, fundraising coordinator at Our Kids Count, said the event, which wrapped up on Oct. 12, received a lot of local support.
“It was fantastic. Every year there's something a little different to offer on the tours.
“We also had the two family days, a lot of families came through and enjoyed the Haunted Harbour experience,” she said.
Kuger said they've got big plans for their share of the money.
“At Our Kids Count the funds are going to go directly into programming. It's going to be supporting our kitchen, supporting our food security programs and helping to support families and children in the community,” she said.
Our Kids Count cannot survive without the support of Thunder Bay’s community, Kruger added.
“It's just fantastic, it's a community helping the community. It's going directly to families who really are struggling right now and need the supports.
“We always just feel really good about having that community behind us and having the supports in place that we do,” Kruger said.
Wally Peterson, chairman of the Transportation Museum, said the weather really worked out this year.
“We had one nice thunderstorm which added a lot to the the night for the haunted part.”
Peterson said the joint fundraiser is key to keeping the Alexander Henry open to the public.
“We have to do fundraising here. We made a promise when we brought the ship that we would not hit the city up for money or hit the taxpayers of Thunder Bay for money.
“We've kept that promise so far, by doing a fundraiser like this,” he said.
The Transportation Museum has a lease payment due to the city next week and Peterson said the money raised will go a long way in paying that bill.
“It's a great partnership with Our Kids Count and we'll do it next year,” Peterson said.
Megan Elsey, operations manager at Jones Insurance, said the organization has been the title sponsor since the inception of Haunted Harbour.
“It's grown every year and we've been excited to be a part of that growth, we look forward to it every fall," she said.
Seeing the amount of money they were able to raise on Tuesday felt great, Elsey said.
“Every year we want to see that number increase. We learn more every year, we have a little bit more fun every year.
“We're going to take that number up a little bit more next year,” Elsey said.
