Eight-year-old Samantha Surman loves Muskoka and she loves Canada. The UK resident spends about five weeks every year at her family\u2019s condo in Huntsville, swimming in Peninsula Lake and skating at the Huntsville Skating Club\u2019s summer camp in August and skiing at Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area in December. Her passion for skating started on frozen Peninsula Lake when she was four years old. And every year she can\u2019t wait to come back to her second, and in some ways favourite, home.<\/p>\n
So when she saw images of the fires in Fort McMurray, she was upset and immediately wanted to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw what happened to Canada and I thought how everybody would have lost their homes and I felt really sorry for them,\u201d she said via Skype. \u201cI wanted to raise money for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said to her mom, Sue, \u201cI could make cakes and sell them.\u201d And that\u2019s just what she did.<\/p>\n
Because she associates ice skating with Canada, the Oxford rink where she trains four times a week became her main sales focus for a week. When she wasn\u2019t skating she sold cakes to fellow skaters and watchers, using home made signs to advertise and provide awareness of the money being raised for the Fort McMurray appeal, said Sue.<\/p>\n\n\t\t