Building 'outside the box': Fort Winter Festival introduces build-a-boat sled competition

‘Outside the box’ at Fort Winter Festival WATCH: The Fort Winter Festival continued with a competition that had competitors thinking outside the box. Luke Simard reports.

The annual Fort Winter festival ended on a high note Sunday with a competition that forced competitors to think outside the box and build a sled using cardboard.

Contestants in Fort Qu’Appelle had an hour to use tape, inflatables and cardboard to build their vessel before putting it to the test on the sledding hill.

Families from all over the area came to participate.

“We built [it] out of cardboard and tape and zip ties, and then we raced it down the hill behind us,” one family explained.

“Our sled fell apart, but we did win first place.”

The contest was hosted by Scoopdoggy, a new business in town, with the hope of the sledding extravaganza becoming a yearly fixture.

“We're just really excited to be building a community event. Scoopdoggy is new to the town and we are just opening this spring,” Tanner Scheidt, owner and operator of Scoopdoggy, told CTV News.

“We figured we would throw a big event and then hopefully it will become something annually that the families can get together and do.”

Contestants put their skills to the test and took to the hills to see if their sled could keep it together.

“It is our first try and it will be interesting to see how many people fall down the hill as opposed to sled,” Scheidt said.

“If they can do with boats, why can't we do with sleds, right? It should be a good time.”

Megan Main-Parfitt was one of the organizers for the Fort Winter Festival.

She explained and it was an important weekend for everyone in the community.

“It means getting people out and making memories,” she said. “Trying to fight those winter blues that are kind of getting everybody down.”