If you are in Nanaimo on Thursday afternoon and see balls falling from the sky don’t be alarmed.
The ball drop is part of the third annual Blair McKinnon celebrity football game being held at Caledonia Field June 14 at 5:30 p.m.
This year before the kickoff, organizers are dropping 1,000 footballs from a helicopter onto the field and the one closet to the centre of the circle wins $5,000 cash.
The last two football games have raised over $165,000 for organizations such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Vancouver Island, Young Professionals of Nanaimo (YPN) and the Vancouver Island University (VIU) Scholarship Foundation.
This year’s proceeds will go to the Nanaimo Community Hospice Society, the YPN and the VIU Scholarship Foundation.
For the past three years, many people in the mid-Island area have been honouring the spirit of Blair McKinnon, including Shawna Broekhuizen, general manager of the The Beach Club Resort in Parksville.
Broekhuizen hosted a fundraiser at the resort last week and will be playing in the game Thursday.
“It is an honour to be asked to play in the game and to help raise funds for the Blair McKinnon Foundation.
“Blair was a colleague and a great person and an incredible inspiration,” said Broekhuizen.
McKinnon was only 30 years old when he suffered a seizure and died in 2010.
The life-long resident of Nanaimo was active in charity work and was fundraising to restore the E&N train station before he died.
To honour the dreams of McKinnon, his family, friends and business associates wanted to continue his legacy of community involvement and created the Blair McKinnon celebrity football game to raise funds for the charities he supported.
For more information on the ball drop and the June 14 game visit www.bmfootball.ca.