Vertical Slam organizers donate gift cards to Fort St. John Hospital

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Allan and Laurie Cardinal dropped $5,200 worth of grocery gift cards to the chemotherapy unit at the Fort St. John Hospital on August 9th. (Fort St. John Hospital Foundation, Facebook)

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Cancer patients at Fort St. John Hospital saw their day get a little bit brighter, courtesy of a delivery of grocery gift cards by representatives from the Vertical Slam Ultimate Challenge Society.

The society organizes both its namesake race and the Sadownik Miles for Smiles race in June. Both endurance race events take place in the Peace region.

The Vertical Slam Ultimate Challenge is an endurance race with routes of five and 10 kilometres and a half-marathon distance in the Beatton valley near Cecil Lake, while the Sadownik Miles For Smiles race is a 24-hour distance ultra race doing laps of Fish Creek Community Forest.

This week, the society’s president and event founder, Laurie Cardinal, was accompanied by husband Allan Cardinal in distributing grocery gift cards to Fort St. John Hospital chemotherapy unit, from part of the total fundraised at the two races.

Cardinal told Energeticcity.ca back in July the events raised a combined $51,200.

The Fort St. John Hospital Foundation took a picture of the couple dropping off 26 grocery gift cards worth $200 each on its Facebook page at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, August 10th.

The rest of the combined total went to gift cards benefitting School District 60 schools.

The post reads: “This generous donation is part of the ongoing legacy of the Sadownik Miles For Smiles. This is a community-driven fundraiser that has been making a difference for years.”

Cardinal said to Energeticcity.ca she “loves the fundraiser and doing this” to support the community, adding there was a cancer survivor in her family.

“We know financially what it’s like to go through the hardships of getting medical help and care,” said Cardinal. “There is not a lot of financial help for people with cancer and illness to help support them with daily bills.

“Every year we do this fundraiser, we can at least make somebody smile, let them know somebody cares about them, and just temporarily give them a little bit of a reprieve.”

She also confirmed the Vertical Slam Ultimate Challenge and the Sadownik Miles for Smiles races will take place in June 2026.