Final totals are still being calculated but the Push the Bus event held at Sarnia's YMCA Jerry McCaw Family Centre has helped raise over $21,000 to send area kids to camp.
The third annual event was held at the Finch Drive site on July 26.
General Manager Paul Skuza said this year's goal was to raise $20,000 for the Fill the Bus campaign.
He said they used a different format this year with two buses instead of one.
"We had teams of three to six people pushing a bus, next to another team to see who could complete the push first for about 100 metres. It was in a tournament format so the winning team moved on," Skuza said. "We had almost 30 teams in the tournament so we had a few teams push multiple times all the way to the finals."
The Sarnia Professional Firefighters Association won again in back-to-back years.
The number of participating teams is more than double what was seen in 2022 during the inaugural year, with roughly eight or nine groups.
"The event is growing and people are really enjoying it so I think we'll keep it going, make it a tradition here in Sarnia every summer," he said.
Skuza also said the Push the Bus event was adopted in Chatham this summer as well.
Although Sarnia did really well with its campaign, Skuza said other communities are still fundraising.
"Our [YMCA of Southwestern Ontario] goal was $200,000 so the goal was to get 1,000 kids to camp so we're still looking for more support there," he said. "So that's something we'll be doing until the end of August, so we're still about $60,000 away."
Skuza said aside from summer day camps, the Sarnia location also runs camps throughout the school year during Christmas break, March break, and on professional development (PD) days.
He said in Sarnia, about a third of their membership is subsidized in some way.
