So where does the money go?

by Ice Fishing Derby Donations

🐟 About the KidFish Ice Fishing Derby

Since 2015, kidfish.ca has hosted an annual Ice Fishing Derby in Selkirk, Manitoba, bringing families and anglers together for a day of fun—and a shared purpose. The event is held on the frozen Red River, normally in mid-February, with Selkirk Park as its venue.

🎯 Our Mission: Supporting Manitoba Kids

KidFish proudly partners with the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba and CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, raising vital funds through ticket sales, raffles, and sponsor support.

  • In 2023‑2024, over $38,000 was raised—split equally between both charities.
  • Across the years, KidFish has raised hundreds of thousands, with over $450,000 raised to date, benefiting pediatric cancer care and broader children’s health initiatives across Manitoba.

When you support the derby, you’re helping sick children in our community—because, at the end of the day, it’s all about the kids.

🌟 Event Highlights & Family Fun

KidFish offers engaging, family-friendly activities along with giving back:

  • Free rod & reel combo for the first ~600 kids who attend.
  • Top 10 overall fish prizes and Top 5 kid fish categories.
  • Random draws and giveaways for ticket holders—even if they don’t fish.
  • A hot meal provided by donation, and on-site entertainment, games, and prizes.

Participants love it—the event is reliably fun, well‑run, and appreciated by families despite the winter chill

2023-2024 Results

by Ice Fishing Derby Donations

A huge shoutout to the Manitoba fishing community, and all our sponsors and supporters!

We all know someone who has been touched by cancer, including our own KidFish family. This years event had it’s challenges. Weather and ice conditions prevented us from being on the ice, however over 500 came out to the Selkirk Rec Centre in support of our ‘derby’. Through ticket sales and raffles KidFish was able to raise $38,000 for our charities!

KidFish is proud to present The Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba and CancerCare Manitoba Foundation each with a cheque for $19,000.

Thank you to all our sponsors and supporters for helping to make this donation possible!

2022 – 2023 Results

by Ice Fishing Derby Donations

We were so excited to be able to return to a traditional on ice derby event!

The volunteers hit the ground running and the event was announced to take place on February 19th, 2023. We had many sponsors step up to help make this event another great year.

This year we sold a total of 1,222 tickets with 408 of this being kid tickets! We estimate our attendance on ice of derby day was around 1250 (including volunteers, mascots & exhibitors).

Thank you to everyone that supported our event. With your help we were able to present cheques of $28,000 to Children’s Hospital of Manitoba and $28,000.00 to CancerCare Manitoba Foundation.




2021 – 2022 Results

by Ice Fishing Derby Donations

With large events still up in the air at the start of our planning, the volunteer committee decided to repeat our virtual ice fishing derby from 2021 with hopes of a few more in person pop ups if restrictions allowed.

The virtual derby ran from February 5th to February 20th and was open to anyone in Manitoba.

February 5th and Feb 19th our volunteer crew met at the Float Plane Base in Selkirk to serve lunch, and hand out rods to our ticket holders that joined in our day on the ice. Feb 12th, due to some inclement weather we moved our pop up location from Riverton to Red River Cats in Lockport. All 3 days were a blast on the ice! We were able to present cheques of $11,111.00 to Children’s Hospital of Manitoba and $11,111.00 to CancerCare Manitoba Foundation.
Thank you to everyone that supported our fundraising efforts, either with donations or by entering the derby. We couldn’t do this without all of you!

IMG_0458

Kidfish 2020-2021

by Ice Fishing Derby Donations

2021 brought us yet another challenge, this year was a Global Pandemic. With the safety of our volunteers and participants as our priority, we decided it was best to cancel our big Derby in Selkirk and move to a Virtual Derby.  This allowed people from all of Manitoba to participate and fish on any body of water. With the purchase of a ticket online, each participant was entered into all of our draws whether they caught a fish or not.

Being Virtual brought us to 5 different communities in Manitoba. From St. Norbert and Selkirk on the Red River to Sandy Bar in Riverton, to Gimli and to Balsam Bay on Lake Winnipeg. We were available to drill holes and offer ice shelters to families who have never participated before. We handed out ice fishing rods to the kids that came and checked in with us and asked that participants send in pictures of being out enjoying time with family to enter into more draws. 

Thank you to all our Volunteers and to all our sponsors for making this year a success even through a pandemic. Thank you to all participants for always making it “All About The Kids”

IMG_0458
IMG_0448
IMG_0454
IMG_0455
IMG_0453
IMG_0449
IMG_0447
IMG_0451
IMG_0452
IMG_0457
IMG_0456