Regina celebrity drag show raises more than $60K for LGBTQ2S+ youth shelter
Some of Regina’s best-known personalities worked the runway at “Walk the Walk,” a celebrity drag show and fundraiser for Regina’s LGBTQ2S+ youth.
Contestants and donations at the event itself brought in more than $61,000, shattering the $100,000 goal needed to pay off the house purchased by Lulu’s Lodge.
“We are still counting, but we are well over $61,000 raised for Lulu’s Lulu's Lodge,” Terry Van Mackelberg, also known by his drag persona Flo Mingo, wrote on Facebook. “We paid off their forever home. And it feels damn good.”
Van Mackelberg organized the event and performed alongside the slate of celebrities in full drag.
The event featured 12 local celebrities, including Mayor Sandra Masters, Morgan Campbell, anchor of CTV News Regina at 6 and Trent Wotherspoon, MLA for Regina Rosemont.
“If you have access to more people, and you have a voice that’s out in the community more, participating in something like this actually helps to advocate for that awareness, and to make everyone feel more included,” said Masters.
Tourism Saskatchewan’s Nathan Morrison as Aida Big Mac took home the crown after a top-three performance against CTV Regina’s Morgan Campbell and Nelson Bird.
According to the John Howard Society, which runs the lodge, the funds will offer the chance to be more be lenient with rent when individuals are transitioning to different housing placements or income sources.
“We don’t have any funding for the operations of the house, so now we can dedicate more to the operations of the home, so the staffing, the recreations,” said Tanna Young, director of social programs with the John Howard Society.
Celebrity participants were required to raise a minimum of $1,000 to enter the competition, while $2,000 raised afforded participants a local drag mentor. Celebrities who raised $5,000 were permitted to perform alongside their drag mentor and $10,000 raised bought them out of the competition.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.