The local sports community is pulling together to support an injured young athlete.

Dozens of volunteers gathered Saturday to raise money for the Matheson family with a barbecue at the Tahkini Arena and a barbecue and carwash at Canadian Tire.

Brendan Matheson fell from a fourth-floor hotel balcony in Edmonton on June 30. The 15-year-old basketball and hockey player was in the city with the Yukon's Western Canada Summer Games men's basketball team for a pre-games tournament.

Organizer Ann Jirousek was a bit worried that Saturday's less-than-ideal weather would keep volunteers at home.

"But I figured most of the volunteers are hockey players so they'd show up because they do fund-raising even when it's -40 weather,” she said in an interview this morning.

From peewee players to parents, volunteers came out to flip burgers and scrub vehicles.

Their efforts netted $2,296, which Jirousek says will be deposited in the Mathesons' account to help with expenses the family faces while staying in Edmonton as Brendan recovers.

"It's just to make things a little easier while they have to stay so far away from home,” Jirousek said.

How long Brendan's recovery will take remains unclear.

"I know he's doing better than any of us in Whitehorse expected he would by this time,” said Jirousek, whose sons play hockey with Brendan, and who teaches at F.H. Collins Secondary School, where Brendan is a student.

Among the volunteers were some of Brendan's Bantam Mustangs hockey teammates, members of the F.H. Collins girls basketball team and lots of parents.

Managers from Canadian Tire and Yukon Electrical Co. Ltd. also helped to ensure the fundraisers went off without a hitch, Jirousek said.

For some volunteers, however, the events were about healing as well as helping. Members of Brendan's U-15 basketball team and the team's coach, Jeff Cressman, came out to lend a hand on Saturday.

"Helping makes everyone feel like they're contributing to his well-being,” Jirousek said, adding that doing something positive like a fundraiser helps with the healing process.

As soon as the community found out about Brendan's fall, they began organizing ways to help, Jirousek said.

A hockey moms' meeting was called, with "all sorts of supportive friends” in attendance.

The group spoke with other hockey groups in the community, brainstorming how they could lend a hand "without interfering too much.

"Being mothers, we were wanting to help, thinking, ‘What if this was our child?'” Jirousek said.

And the group isn't through with helping yet. A second fundraiser is being organized for Aug. 18.

The East Coast Night Barbecue will take place at the MacBride Museum on that date. The Mathesons had relocated to Whitehorse from Nova Scotia.

The event will feature a live band and food. Check out the Facebook group for more information.