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Prince George, B.C. – Soggy conditions greeted about 450 elementary school aged kids at the first annual Aboriginal Education Canadian Tire Little Mudder Challenge at Otway Nordic Ski Centre today.

The 5.7 km obstacle course is a shortened version of last weekends 9.2 km Mudd, Sweat and Tears race at Otway.

The participants are grades 4-7 students (both aboriginal and non-aboriginal) from inner-city schools throughout the Prince George School District.

Main sponsor Canadian Tire fully funded the event through funds raised by their Jumpstart program.

Community relations manager Jane Hilder says they wanted a spring/summer event to build on their winter hockey tournament.

“It’s such a great opportunity to have kids be involved in organized sports. There’s a lot of barriers nowadays to organized sports – there’s a lot of fees that come with it and this gives an opportunity for kids to work in a team environment and be able to do it free of cost.”

“It’s all about kids building a relationship with each other, learning to support each other,” adds John Giannisis, rediscovery coordinator with the district’s Aboriginal Education Department. “It’s not a race, it’s about challenging themselves and getting over obstacles.”

Lance Potskin, sports program coordinator, wasn’t phased by the wet conditions.

“Not really. I think this is ideal weather for something like this. If it was something else, it would be a big problem but I think for this the kids are going to have a blast.”