Bannock burger sales aim to change 'negative stigma' in Thunder Bay neighbourhood

You can put your hankering for a bannock burger to good use Saturday in Thunder Bay, Ont., at a fundraiser for youth activities in a low-income neighbourhood.

The Vale/Limbrick Community Action Group hopes the March 18 food sale — and a talent show the following weekend — will bring in enough money to fund recreational activities, as well as a memorial powwow for Otis Perkins, who was killed in the neighbourhood last year.

"Our mission statement is to help our neighbourhood function in unity at its full potential to provide a safer, healthier and more productive community for all," said the action group's Amy Manning.

"Our programs are all around increasing the safety and security here," she said. "We're trying to change the negative stigma attached to Limbrick, we want to aid people in furthering their education and gaining employment...and just create a stronger neighbourhood here."

Manning, 25, said she is motivated in her work by one of the last conversations she had with her friend, Perkins, before he was killed last year.

"We started talking about the way the youth in this community don't have opportunities and that night I promised Otis that I'd start a program here in Limbrick," Manning said.

Weeks later, Perkins, 25, was stabbed in a neighbourhood playground. A 14-year-old was charged with second degree murder.

Manning was the one who called the ambulance for her friend. She still fights back tears talking about his death.

"It kind of just made me want to work towards keeping that promise to him," she said. "So that's why we're doing a memorial powwow."

No date has been set for the powwow yet, but the planning has begun.

The bannock burger and taco sale takes place at the Limbrick Resource Centre, Unit 87, on Saturday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The group is also hoping to receive donations to build a stage for next weekend's talent show at the Vale Community Centre. Contestants can register for $10 with the Vale/Limbrick Community Action Group.

Four judges, including a comedian and a musician, have already been arranged. They'll decide who wins the $200 prize.