THUNDER BAY — Team Lakehead Brewery overcame the odds in a tug-of-war competition presented during Red Lion Smokehouse and the Vinyl Frontier Canada's first-ever Block Party on Saturday.
The competition showcased several businesses on Cumberland Street South teaming up with locals to compete in groups of five to support Our Kids Count.
“We’ve got a couple teams signed up. A lot of them just local businesses from our street,” said John Murray, the Red Lion Smokehouse’s owner and one of the event organizers of the Block Party.
“So yeah, it should be a fun event. The whole thing is meant to be a charitable thing, so hopefully, nobody takes it too, too seriously. But yeah, it’s just a bit of bragging rights for our neighbourhood and for our block.”
In addition to the competition, the family-friendly event featured local vendors, live music into the evening, a small community barbecue prior to the contest and several other family-friendly activities raising proceeds for the charity.
“We’ve got a Chalk the Block event, where we’re trying to beautify our streets. We’ve got some live art that we’re unveiling later on this afternoon,” said Murray.
“All the proceeds from all of our burgers are going to Our Kids Count as well,” he said.
The block party is also just a way to celebrate downtown, said Murray.
“We’ve got a big beautiful street (off of) Red River Road there, so we want to just sort of celebrate how lucky we are to be downtown here in the Waterfront district,” said Murray.
He gave a shout-out to the City of Thunder Bay event staff and parks team for their efforts in putting it on.
“They were amazing getting everything organized,” said Murray.
The fire department, he added, also filled up water barriers for the event.
“It was just nice to see lots of people from the city pulling together to make this happen and as a result, we’ve got a fun little community event downtown, so it’s been great,” said Murray.
Murray said they were really impressed and happy with their turnout.
“It’s hard to estimate how many people we’ve had so far, but it’s been a great turnout,” said Murray.
“It’s been busy all day so far, so we’re really excited on how things are going on our first year.”
Next year, he said they hope to get some more sponsors and support to grow this event and have a big prize giveaway.
"I love to see events like this downtown, so we want to see more of it and encourage it," said Murray.
