Roughly 600 people turned out for a gala evening last Thursday in Winnipeg, in support of the First Nations Caring Society, which advocates for the rights of first nations children and families.

Donald Smoke's the Board Chair for Dakota Ojibway Child and Family Services, and calls the gala an important event.

"We need to support the Caring Society, so they can continue to address the unique situations that our first nations children address, living within first nations communities, and off first nations as well," he says. "Our children face a lot of unique obstacles growing up, and it just makes it tougher to fit in, and to compete in society for different things, such as education and jobs."

Smoke points to challenges kids from Dakota Tipi First Nation face.

"For example in our community, you don't have the option of having a job when you're a teenager," he says. "We live in an area where even getting to Portage is somewhat of an issue. We have a lot of children that aren't exposed to Portage la Prairie as much as we'd like. So even just coming to Portage la Prairie when they hit grade 9 is quite the culture shock for them."

Smoke adds more than $100,000 was raised, and a highlight of the evening was honouring the family of Jordan Anderson, whose story prompted the establishment of Jordan's Principle.

"In 2007 they passed a motion eliminating the jurisdictional dispute between the federal and provincial government as to who was responsible for this little guy," he says. "And he actually died in hospital, waiting for those results. So his family came out, and we honoured them and the legacy of Jordan."