YMCA's first Race to the Finish Line event a success

The first YMCA Race to the Finish Line took place at Kivi Park in Sudbury on Saturday. (Lyndsay Aelick/CTV News)

The first YMCA Race to the Finish Line took place at Kivi Park in Sudbury on Saturday.

Local businesses hosted the event with hopes of bringing YMCA of Northeastern Ontario's My Y is Resilient campaign to a close.

When the YMCA set the goal of raising $2 million for the campaign, officials said many people told them they couldn’t do it.

“A lot of people around Canada were telling us it was going to be almost impossible during a pandemic with all of that uncertainty to hit a $2 million target," said Helen Francis, YMCA of Northeastern Ontario CEO.

"I’d like to say I’m super, super proud of the communities that were in Sudbury, North Bay particularly, they really came together."

Francis said they are potentially only weeks away from hitting that target. They received a big boost from Saturday's Race to the Finish Line.

NSS Canada, in partnership with Apex Warrior, hosted the race.

“We had 236 participants today,” said Bruno Lalonde, NSS Canada president.

"We had the 1K kid's race, then we had the wild 5, 10 and then the 21K today so we had lots of running."

All net proceeds for the race will go directly to YMCA programs and services.

“It was really around sustaining costs," said Francis.

"Obviously throughout the pandemic when we’ve had to close our facilities, unfortunately, we’ve lost a lot of membership revenue that would typically come in allow us to operate and allow us to provide financial assistance so that we can remove barriers and everyone can have equal access to our program.”

The race was just part of Saturday's event. An awards gala at Science North Saturday evening will feature a silent auction, 50/50 draw, a sit-down dinner and DJ, allowing organizers to raise even more funds for the campaign.