ST. PAUL – The County of St. Paul and Elk Point FCSS put new excitement into picking rocks in three communities across the county with their first ever ‘You Rock!’ contest.
For the past month, people of all ages have been searching the communities of Ashmont, Mallaig and Elk Point for green painted rocks, each marked with a number between one and five, and on Saturday, collectors brought their rock piles, large and small, to a designated location in each town where FCSS Director Janice Fodchuk added up the numbers to determine the winners of some most impressive prizes.
The top total in each town earned the collectors an iPad, the second highest a basket of gift cards valued at $300 and the third highest a $100 Sunshine Video gift card.
At Ashmont Ag Society’s hall, excited siblings Ava and Scott Iverson brought in the largest total, to win the iPad, with Makayla and McKenna Newberry-Stratford taking home the gift cards and Nevayah Katcheech Baptiste winning the Sunshine Video card.
At Mallaig Seniors Hall, the Gerlinsky family was happy to accept the iPad, Gabrielle Hebert placed second for the gift cards and the Vallee family was third for the Sunshine Video card.
The contest wound up in Elk Point at the FCSS office in the EcoCentre, where a pair of Swedgan families accepted the top prizes, Bradley Swedgan and son Dawson’s collection adding up to a whopping 280 points to win the iPad, while brother Chris Swedgan and children Lillyen, Delaney and Liam counted up 128 points to take home the gift card basket and young Jayden Sakowsky placed third with 80 points for the Sunshine Video card.
“The contest was rewarding for me, too,” said Fodchuk, who added that she was very pleased with the results of a three-day effort by her summer students back in August, who spent two days painting and numbering 200 rocks for each community and a third day hiding them in preparation for the contest announcement.
She plans another ‘You Rock!’ contest next year, and is seriously considering a suggestion from another Elk Point contestant, that hiding the rocks 50 at a time at one week intervals might give more hunters a better chance at a win, and keep them from being discouraged by the potential that all the rocks might already have been collected.
