Speaking during the O’Leary Town Council’s monthly meeting Thursday, Dumville described the many activities O’Leary’s Hockeyville committee has undertaken to advance its nomination.
O’Leary was the only community in the Maritimes to make it through to the national Top-10, and Dumville said the community is getting support from all over.
“It’s absolutely fantastic,” he said of what the competition means in building community pride.
“It brings awareness for O’Leary; it brings awareness for western P.E.I. and for all of P.E.I.”
Dumville explained that it is going to take a lot of votes, not only from area residents but from supporters right across the country to move O’Leary to the next stage, top community in eastern Canada, encouraging councillors and anyone else to vote and vote often.
When there are no residents at the counter or phone calls to be answered, administrative staff for the town has been freed up to spend Monday voting in support of the cause.
Town Council, in partnership with O’Leary Legion and O’Leary Co-op, is hosting a pancake breakfast at the legion Sunday morning, “to get the buzz going,” Dumville said. Voting opens online at 10 a.m Sunday and remains open around the clock for 39 hours.
There will be a voting station set up at the O’Leary Christian Education Centre to help anyone who does not have computers, or is unsure how to log in to vote, so that anyone who wants to take advantage of the opportunity to vote for O’Leary can do so.
There will be other voting locations around town, too, including at the legion, curling club and SOS Computer Solutions.
“I really believe we can win,” Dumville said of the anticipated outcome form all the preparations.
Making it to first in Eastern Canada would bump up O’Leary’s current prize from $25,000 to $100,000 for arena upgrades, and to make it to top in Canada during subsequent round of voting would bring an additional reward of a chance to host an NHL pre-season exhibition game.
