The Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation is celebrating what it calls one of the most impactful years in its history. On Thursday, the Foundation released its 2025-26 Annual Impact Report, outlining more than $5 million invested back into communities across Saskatchewan during the past year, including $3.3 million directed into amateur football through the Foundation’s 50/50 program.
Coming off a Grey Cup championship season, the Foundation highlighted growth not only in football participation but in literacy, wellness and school-based programming across the province.
One of the centrepiece initiatives was Equip The Heartland, a grassroots project designed to put football directly into the hands of Saskatchewan youth. Through the initiative, the Foundation is delivering 850 branded flag football kits to elementary schools, K-12 schools and youth-serving organizations across the province. Each kit includes equipment, rules, drills and coaching resources aimed at making football more accessible.
Executive Director Cindy Fuchs said the goal is continuing to remove barriers that can prevent kids from getting involved in sport.
“Did we ever dream that we’d reach this many kids and help remove barriers like that? But I can tell you in football, this province has a lot of great football happening at all levels, amateur football, but there’s lots of barriers,” Fuchs said. “The Rider Foundation can be a big part in helping remove those barriers, introduce the game to grassroots kids, so everybody gets a chance to play.”
The Foundation’s Grow the Game initiative also reached a new milestone this year, engaging more than 2,000 youth through more than 50 camps across Saskatchewan, including more than 400 Indigenous youth and 250 newcomers to Canada. A school pilot program added another 1,000 students through 40 classroom sessions.
Beyond football, the Foundation’s broader community programs delivered major reach:
- More than 45,000 youth participated in in-person programming
- Rider Reading delivered 878 presentations to 21,648 students
- Win With Wellness reached 24,071 students through 430 presentations
- Foundation staff and volunteers travelled more than 26,000 kilometres across Saskatchewan
Fuchs said one of the biggest takeaways from the report is realizing the influence Roughriders players continue to have long after leaving a school visit.
“When a player comes into their school, it’s the same thing the teachers are teaching because it’s curriculum approved, but it feels better and they hear it better from a professional athlete. I say to the players every morning before they go into schools, you don’t know today if you’re going to impact a life and help a child make a different decision.”
This year marked the first time the Foundation presented the annual report as a storytelling event rather than simply releasing governance documents.
“We said, why don’t we tell our story? If we can share the impact that we’re actually making, we can make more impact. When I’m sitting there and watching it all unfold, I’m thinking, wow, that’s a lot that these guys have done.”
Fuchs acknowledged there is still work to do in helping people understand the full scope of the Foundation’s impact.
“Everybody knows about the amateur football piece, but the mental health and literacy side, the kids know, the teachers know, but we’re not sure parents know,” she said. That’s our next step, making sure parents understand what we’re’re actually helping do in the schools.”
Roughriders President and CEO Craig Reynolds credited the support across Saskatchewan for helping fuel the growth.
“When our team brought the Grey Cup back to Saskatchewan, it captured something this province already knows well. We show up,” Reynolds said. “That same pride runs through everything this Foundation does, and when I think about what we are capable of in the years ahead, I could not be prouder.”
For Fuchs, the continued growth reinforces something she discovered early in her time leading the Foundation.
“I underestimated the power of Rider Nation,” she said. “It just reinforces that we have a great province that we live in. People care here and they really care about kids.”
