Students from an isolated northern reserve raffled off a snowmobile this week to help raise money for a bus ride they hope will allow them to take part in Olympic history.

The students learned of the invitation to participate in the relay in September, and have been fundraising ever since for money to cover transportation costs.

Tickets for the donated snowmobile brought their fundraising total to $3,600, edging closer to their minimum goal of $5,400. That amount would pay for a bus to take 19 students and a teacher to run in the Olympic torch relay in Dawson Creek, B.C. It's one of the closest towns to where they live, but still seven hours away.

If they could get to $8,000, said teacher Tylene Neary, they could also afford to buy the torch they carry as a souvenir for the school, get matching running shoes for the team and send a couple of parents along as chaperones.

"It's an amazing opportunity for anyone to carry the Olympic torch, especially for these students," Neary said. "We'll still be fundraising into January."

The community of Fox Lake is one of the most isolated in the province.

It sits on the western edge of Wood Buffalo National Park, more than 500 kilometres north of Edmonton, and is connected to High Level by a long dirt road and two-car barge across the Peace River.

It's a hunting community where Cree is the first language and mukluks are common.

Turkey bingo is an annual event put on by the school association to raise money for student trips and extras.

This year, players won 22 turkeys in addition to the cash prizes, and in a supportive community with few other organized events, attendance was good.

But fundraising has been slow.

"Being isolated, you don't have a great source of funding, but the community is trying," said school principal Doug McMaster.

"It's a good idea for the students to go because they start to realize they are part of this nation. Being on a reserve, especially an isolated one like we are, you don't feel like you really belong sometimes."

The Dawson Creek trip will be a three-day affair. The team will run one kilometre, with each student carrying the torch for 50 metres.

"We get to be on camera, meet new people and go see Dawson Creek," said Grade 11 student Lana Laboucan.

The students were so excited, they didn't say anything, "just screamed," when they found out they were invited to go, said Caren Tallcree, a Grade 9 student. "The whole thought of going there and carrying the Olympic torch, it sounds so fun. I get to be on TV."

Neary wrote a proposal about how they plan to make Canada a better place and stressed how active the students are, she said.

They were told in September they had a spot, then had just one week to pick which students out of the 600 would get to participate. The teachers came up with a list based on the amount of extracurricular activities each student did the year before, and they had to have a minimum 70-per-cent attendance at school, she said.

It was the parents' idea to try to get the team matching running shoes. "They have running shoes, but they are not always the best," said Neary, and the students want to look like a team.

The students posted a countdown on the wall at school, and many have bought cameras. Besides raffling the snowmobile, they've made candy grams and sold chocolate chip cookies for $1 each. They hosted a trivia night, and are planning a hockey tournament next month where they will run a canteen.

If the route was close to town, community members would line the road to cheer, said McMaster. "It's too bad it wasn't closer to the community. The cost (of travel) is just prohibitive."

Dawson Creek is the closest the torch will come to Fox Lake, besides a quick stop it made in Grande Prairie, about a six-hour drive away, on Day 8 in November.

The torch will be flown into Dawson Creek on Jan. 31, and will be run through Tumbler Ridge, Chetwyn, Saulteau and Hudson's Hope before it flies out again from Fort St. John.

estolte@thejournal.canwest.com