Home »
Cherry Chucks coming to Sam Steele Days
Thanks to Creston ingenuity, a time honoured mode of Kootenay transportation has been transformed into the region’s newest family-fun sport.
The ‘Cherry Chucks’ are scaled-down human-powered chuck wagons that have been cleverly designed to include a number of features from the old-style chuck wagons that brought many of our ancestors into this Kootenay region.
The wagons are made from local wooden fruit boxes atop bicycle wheels. These lightweight units have been a genuine community effort.
“Students and instructors from Creston’s Prince Charles Secondary School and the College of the Rockies have helped design and construct the welded superstructure and the wooden wagon parts to create these chucks,” said Cherry Chuck founder Mike Fitzpatrick.
Ten chuck wagons will be in the Sam Steele Days Parade and will be providing free rides to the public on Saturday, June 18 immediately after the Sam Steele Days Parade at two locations; Baker Street between 10th & 11th Avenues downtown and at Balment Park next to the Skate Park where this year’s Balls of Steele Bocce Tournament takes place.
Kootenay Regional Association for Community Living (KRACL) is behind the chuck wagon demonstration and free rides to bring about public awareness to a future chuck wagon race that will help fund a major Community Living renovation project now in the works. KRACL has partnered with the Key City Air Cadets to provide the rides.
Sam Steele Days is honouring all those who serve and protect, past, present and future and are very pleased with this collaboration which helps to ‘Salute the Boots’ featuring the cadets. Find more details on the official Sam Steele Days festival website.
Fitzpatrick says 100% of the proceeds from this year’s upcoming Cherry Chuck Races will be devoted to building housing for people with disabilities, specifically for those who live in the Kootenays and could benefit from the Spectrum Farms project, a KRACL property.
“If the teams raise more money than required, they’ll have seconds taken off their time, which may allow them to more easily win their heat,” he said.
The Cherry Chucks website will be live soon to provide more information. Until then, those interested in participating in the race tentatively planned for this fall at College of the Rockies track, can contact organizer Mike Fitzpatrick by email: [email protected]
Submitted
