A local charity was the beneficiary of a donation just before the Canada Games kick off.

Team Ontario held their pep rally last night at the University of Winnipeg, which included a donation to a Winnipeg organization.

Team Ontario, along with Team BC, donated one pair of athletic shoes from each member of the teams to the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg as a thank you to Winnipeg for hosting the games.

"The majority of the shoes all came from athletes directly, and some even wrote brief messages of encouragement for the kids (aged 9-15)," said Katrina Galas from Team Ontario's communication team.

"We collected what we think to be about 175 shoes from week one athletes, PSO's and mission staff - week two will see new athletes and thus more shoes," Galas explained.

The initiative came about in hopes of getting kids more active. "Knowing that only 5% of Canadian youth (5-17) are getting the recommendations 60 minutes of daily physical activity (Active Healthy Kids Canada, 2014), getting kids active and involved in sport is a shared priority for our country, so putting our teams’ collective energy towards this issue was important," Team Ontario said in a release.

Michelle Schmidt, Director of Programs for the Boys & Girls Club, and some younger kids from the Club were on hand to accept the donation.

The opening ceremony takes place tonight at BellMTS Place at 7:00 p.m.