Extreme fundraiser gains $50,000 for cancer society, hospitals

The second annual Grapes of Wrath Extreme Romp ‘n’ Stomp raised $50,000 to be shared among the Canadian Cancer Society, Prince Edward County and Trenton Memorial hospital foundations.

More than 300 participants and 50 teams traversed over five mud-filled kilometres of rugged terrain while trudging over, under and through grapevines, splashing through the winery’s namesake creek and building the courage to overcome 20 uncompromising, mud stricken obstacles designed and built by Canadian military volunteers, local fire fighters and carpenters.

“The influx of more than 500 people, including participants, volunteers and spectators, all converging on a winery in the County in support of cancer care in our communities is both thrilling and heart-warming, to know that so many people care,” said Briar Boyce, communications co-ordinator for the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation.

“With feedback from our 2014 participants, we notably upped the ante for 2015 including obstacles, such as low profile walls and an entanglement box, which are replicas of what fire fighters use in their gruelling training and were actually built by a Quinte West fire fighter,” said Laura-Lee Hogan, manager of events and stewardship at TMH. “These were placed throughout the vineyard in order to break up some of the 5km of terrain. Returning participants noted that they were already looking forward to registering for 2016 and we are happy to oblige.”

Early Bird registration for Grapes of Wrath 2016 is already up and running at www.cancer.ca/grapesofwrathPEC

“We are very grateful to see so many people with the courage, determination and dedication to compete in support of cancer care in our region. We promised mud, we promised pain and sadly there was a little pain on the course this year,” said Brad Warner of the CCS, referring to two ankle injuries that occurred on the course. “Both injured participants were real troupers and showed great poise and strength, both vowing to return next year and we have been checking in on them both to see that they are doing well,” said Warner

Photos here: Spirit and camaraderie reign at extreme fundraiser