Families with sick children experience off-roading adventure in Muskoka

Families with seriously or chronically ill children got to experience an off-road adventure in Muskoka over the weekend.

Starlight Children's Foundation Canada hosted the event at Christie's Mill Inn and Spa in Port Severn.

"When you have a seriously ill child, it's not easy to do what the rest of us can do with healthy children," says Brian Bringolf, Starlight's CEO.

"We have an incredible in-hospital and outpatient program. Motomax is one of those programs, and we just want to put smiles on the faces of these incredible kids," says Bringolf.

Leaving their worries behind for a weekend, 130 kids and family members enjoyed hovercraft, ATV and fat truck rides.

"It allows us to forget about the hard times. It allows us to forget about the chemo and really remember the good times," says Ethan Bill, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour five years ago.

"Starlight really does bring a moment of just being a family. It's emotional. It allows us to leave a lot of the treatment, the therapies and all that strife and a lot of pain too that comes along with it. We can leave it behind and just do something fun," says Ethan's dad, Ian Bill.

Starlight says its goal is to brighten the lives of sick children and their families through distractive hospital-to-home programs.