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INUVIK - The 2009 Canada Summer Games are more than five months away but the mother of one local participating athlete hasn't wasted any time hitting the fundraising trail.

"When it finally sunk in just after Christmas that Lance would be a part of the Summer Games representing team NWT, that's when I got a little anxious," Camellia Gray said.

Lance Gray shows off some of the food his mother Camellia and other volunteers prepared for his first Canada Games fundraiser on Saturday. Gray will be among the 17-member NWT soccer team travelling to Prince Edward Island in August. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

At the end of July, Lance Gray is expecting to head to Prince Edward Island with 16 other boys from the NWT to participate in one of the world's biggest multi-sport and cultural festivals. Running from Aug. 15 to 29, it will draw more than 4,000 athletes.

Lance was picked for the training team in a rigorous selection camp held last November in Yellowknife, he and his teammates are expected to raise more than $5,000 to help pay for the costs of travel and lodgings, among other things. Nineteen players were selected for the training squad. The final team roster will be whittled to 17 players in July following a 12-day training and final selection camp in Saskatoon.

To kick the fundraising off on Saturday, Camellia, with the help of friends and family, organized a successful steak supper fundraiser at the Legion. Lance's faithful fans came by to show their support and help themselves to some top-notch barbecued stake with all the trimmings.

Ecstatic over the local support, the proud mother says she's planning to put on a few more steak dinners, as well as some Nevada sales at the bingo hall and 50/50 draws. She intends to set up a tent at the upcoming Muskrat Jamboree, where she'll sell chili, doughnuts and soup.

Lance says his mother's always been there for him.

The Grade 11 student, who is the team's lone Beaufort Delta resident, says he's proud to represent NWT but also his home region. Last year he represented his homeland, playing for the juvenile soccer squad at the North American Indigenous Games.

His nerves are becoming a little raw.

"It's great and I'm excited," said the humble youngster. "But when I think about the Games I get really nervous."

He's already looking forward to perhaps a career playing the beautiful game. It's his life, he said.

"I love the creativity you can have with the ball," he said. "I love that you need so much endurance to play the game right. It's such a challenge."