The Western Canada Summer Games committee is inching closer to their fundraising goal for when the games hit Swift Current later this year.

Yesterday Finning signed on as a gold sponsor and will be putting $15,000 towards the games and will be sponsoring the triathlon.

Jim Barks, the regional branch manager of southern Saskatchewan for Finning, said that they are excited to be apart of the Western Canada Summer Games.

"Finning has a long-standing reputation where they have branches be apart of the community," he said. "We invest in the communities we work in. We believe in working with our customers in the communities and developing a better community and a better place for everybody to live. It's important for us to participate in an event like this for the kids, the community, and also for the unity and diversity of the community."

Barks said that Finning decided to be a sponsor with the triathlon because they wanted something that could directly tie them to the games.

"We got a lot of pride in the community here in the branch, and they want to be able to get out and help where they could," he said. "Hopefully we can get out across the triathlon tracks and support the event so we can have some branch involvement with our employees here and that is really what we are looking forward to is getting caught up in the games and be a part of it all."

Scott Cassidy, director of friends of the games, said that they are very excited to have Finning be apart of the games.

"The exciting thing about Finning for sure is that this is a national company," he said. "A world leader in their industry and what they do. Obviously, they have a presence in western Canada and the western Canadian games that the companies we are looking at. I think the games really connect with the values that Finning is wanting to be a part of which is just culture, youth sport, diversity, and things like that. The games provide that all for them."

Cassidy said that Finning is going to have been sponsoring everything to do with the triathlon including social media and signage at the triathlon.

Finning is one of the first national sponsors to be apart of the Western Canada Summer Games that sit only 140 days away from the opening ceremonies.

Cassidy said that they are in talks with over 100 companies about potential investments with the games, something he hopes they can achieve to add to their fundraising efforts.

"From a percentage base we are about 70, 75 per cent the way there, so we are excited about that," he said. "I think we got together about six months ago we were not at this level. Things have really happened in the fourth quarter of 2018 and now in the first quarter of 2019. We've really brought some more sponsorship on board, and I think by the next 140 days we will get to our target and be able to put on successful games."

Cassidy added that they sit at around $750,000 raised so far and their goal is about $1 million. 

"We are just under $600,000 of actual cash dollars raised, and then we have some in-kind sponsorships happening where somebody might not be donating cash directly, but they are donating a certain property that they are allowing the games to use over the 10 days, so I think that value is around 150 to 175,000 dollars last checked. If you put those two numbers together, that's about $750,000, so we are getting very close."