By Stephanie Froese

Stretcher push raises funds for Children’s Hospital Foundation

May 9, 2011 | 4:43 PM

Looking more like a soapbox car with its bicycle tires and custom steering, drivers on Highway 11 this afternoon slowed down to get a look at a stretcher being pushed along the side of the road by a team of rollerbladers.

The sight was the third annual stretcher push – a fundraiser where members of the Saskatchewan Emergency Medical Services Association (SEMSA) pushed a stretcher from Duck Lake to Prince Albert.

The participants collect pledges from people and businesses in their communities, and for the second year in a row that money will be donated to the Children’s Health and Hospital Foundation.

Steve Skoworodko, vice-president of SEMSA, has been involved in the trek all three years.

“We try to do that 50 to 60 kilometres every year into our host city, where ever our convention is,” Skoworodko said.

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About a dozen people participated in this year’s stretcher push. The team started in Duck Lake at around 9:15 a.m. and planned to roll into Prince Albert by 4:00 p.m.

Skoworodko laughed when he was asked what the team did to prepare for the tiring highway journey.

“Some people have done some running in preparation and some people have done very little, but we’re all out there and there’s people that are walking, people that are running and people that are rollerblading,” he said.

The stretcher has been modified a bit to make it easier to push and make the stretcher look a little more interesting.

“It’s a lot of fun and we have paramedics here from as far away as Swift Current, Wynyard, Wakaw, Saskatoon and Prince Albert, so it’s pretty good,” he said.

The Stretcher Push is also a kick off to the SEMSA Convention being held in Prince Albert. The convention goes from Tuesday to Thursday at the Prince Albert Exhibition.

sfroese@panow.com