During their many practices leading up to the Yukon River Quest, one of the paddlers in a still nameless voyageur canoe kept shouting, “get your sticks in the water!”

It was the inspiration the team needed. “What about Stix Together?” pacer Monique Levesque suggested for their team name and the boat that would carry them 715 kilometres down the Yukon River to Dawson City.

They were sold.

“Yukoners have a tendency to really stick together and support each other,” said paddler Cheryl Rivest. “I think that’s what really sold us all on it.”

Stick together indeed. The group of nine women, most of whom had previously paddled or attempted the River Quest were also taking on another project, fundraising for the Yukoners Cancer Care Fund.

Started in 2013 by Geraldine van Bibber to fill in a gap left by the closing of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Whitehorse office, the Yukoners Cancer Care Fund helps support individuals and families from Atlin, B.C. and the Yukon through monetary funds.

Each member of the voyageur team is either a cancer survivor themselves or has had someone close to them affected by the disease.

In the Yukon, supports exist for those with cancer diagnoses, and some chemotherapy can be done at the Whitehorse General Hospital, but patients must travel out of territory for treatments like surgery and radiation.

That’s where the fund comes in. The money can be used for whatever the family or individual needs, be it childcare, pet care, lodging, bills.

“It’s no questions asked,” said team member Deb Bartlett. “It’s an important support for people with cancer.”

To date, the fund has helped 67 people.

The demand continues to be high, said Karen Forward, president of the Yukon Hospital Foundation, which oversees the fund, with 67 applications received this year.

“Stix Together” started fundraising even before the River Quest, donating a ride in the canoe from Riverdale to the Takhini River Bridge to the Speaker’s Auction.

The women received lots of local business support for the River Quest as well. Up North Adventures gave them a discount on the three-month rental of the voyageur canoe, Wyke’s Your Independent Grocer donated the food that would fuel them, Westmark Hotel donated rooms in Dawson for the team. Shoppers Drug Mart and Hvactech also provided invaluable support.

With their entry into the race covered, the women were able to focus their efforts on fundraising and training.

At the meet and greet last week, Rivest, a goldsmith by trade, introduced the paddlers to a special item – a Yukon gold paddle pendant – would be making the journey to Dawson with them.

“It was one of those 2 o’clock in the morning kind of things,” she said. But the idea gained traction and the pendant found a home in Rivest’s drybag at the bottom of the canoe.

Gold for the paddle comes from Lightning Creek, which is in the Mayo area and from Scraggy Creek, which flows into Thistle Creek before dumping into the Yukon River. The nugget on top is from Hunker Creek, near Dawson.

“Most people want to know where the product is from,” said Rivest. “It gives it a little more of a personal touch.”

Paddlers, volunteers and support crews could enter their name in a draw for the pendant and donate to the Cancer Care Fund if they wished.

This was Rivest’s fourth time attempting the River Quest.

She had started to train in her first year with the local “Paddlers Abreast” boat. Her mother is a breast cancer survivor.

Cancer doesn’t run in the family, she said, “it gallops full speed ahead.”

Rivest had a friend in the boat and said, “We’d chat about what a great experience it was and the fantastic hallucinations she would have.”

But that first year she experienced issues with her back and wasn’t able to start.

Her second attempt was marred by a flu bug that forced her to withdraw at Carmacks.

“A false start,” she said.

Finally, during her third attempt, she finished. That friend who had got her started all those years before wasn’t in the boat, but they walked along the shore in Dawson together at the terminus of the race.

“You must feel like you can do anything now,” her friend said as they walked along the raised bank.

“Yeah, I feel fantastic.”

Her friend asked if she’d ever do it again.

“The only way I’m doing this again is if it’s fundraising for something worthy,” Rivest said.

This year, there was a group of women who wanted to paddle together and also do something for the community. The Yukoners Cancer Care Fund seemed like a natural choice for the team.

“It’s local,” said Rivest. “It’s not a top-heavy fund. The money is raised and it goes directly to Yukon families.”

Rivest lost her brother to cancer. During his treatment, Rivest said, he was given a $20,000 cheque by a man.

She supports the fund to “give back, to pay back and to keep the circle going.”

“Cancer sucks and it’s really expensive,” said Rivest.

While the team hasn’t been able to tally the final total of their efforts, Rivest estimates it’s around $5,000.

For Forward, who runs the organization on low-man power, the effort put forward by “Stix Together,” has been welcomed.

“They have been amazing at getting the word out there,” said Forward.

“They’re an amazing group of ladies ... I’m really proud of them.”

And if Rivest and the team have anything to say about it, they will be back next year with bigger and better fundraising goals.

Said Rivest, “We have every intention of doing this again.”