Jo-Anne Wallace, a member of the committee that spearheaded O’Leary’s bid to become Kraft Hockeyville 2017, acknowledges excitement is steadily building as O’Leary prepares for a big party Saturday when this year’s Kraft Hockeyville champion will be announced on Sportsnet’s Hockey Night in Canada pre-game show.
The winner will be either O’Leary, P.E.I. or Ituna, Saskatchewan, the east and west finalists out of nearly 2,000 communities that were in the running.
Although the committee is cautiously optimistic of the outcome, Wallace is playing it safe.
“Well, the reality is, we’re going to celebrate regardless,” she said. “It’s been a phenomenal thing; we’ve had a tremendous time with this. So, this is a celebration, it’s a celebration that we made the top two.”
“We’d get a few groans, if it doesn’t happen, but then the celebration will go on because it’s about the connections we’ve made through this.”
But she knows excitement will be through the roof if O’Leary is announced as the champion.
As East finalist, O’Leary already lays claim to $100,000 in funding for arena upgrades. The winning community will also win the Kraft Hockeyville trophy and will get to play host to an NHL exhibition game.
The location of the game is still to be determined, but Wallace said the committee is certainly counting on it being played at the Community Sports Centre, if O’Leary wins. “In my heart, I can’t imagine it not being in O’Leary; I can’t see why we couldn’t,” she said. Some of those details would be worked out during follow-up meetings. Both finalist communities have already been advised that meetings commence in the winning community next week.
Wallace said the committee has already put preliminary thought into wrapping some sort of community festival around the exhibition game, complete with large screen coverage for the overflow crowd.
Regardless of Saturday’s outcome, Wallace said the committee owes great gratitude to the many people across the province and around the country whose votes got O’Leary this far in the competition. She’s hoping many of those people will take in Saturday’s party at the Community Sports Centre which is scheduled to run from 3 to 9 p.m.
“We’re basically saying, ‘It’s you guys who helped us get here; come celebrate with us.’”
The party will be family-focused. Organizers have extended an invitation to Minor Hockey teams from around the province to arrive in their team jerseys in time for a 3 p.m. noise-maker parade into the arena.
O’Leary Minor Hockey will coordinate a barbecue with hot dogs, hamburgers, mussels and baked potatoes from 4 to 8 p.m.
O’Leary Figure Skating Club is in charge of the decorating for the party, including an arena-themed backdrop for the stage that O’Leary firefighters are assembling for the big party
There’s a full line-up of entertainment as well as kids games, bouncy castles, hockey-themed booths and hand hockey tournament.
Sportsnet will be doing a pre-hit at 5:30 p.m. and Sportsnet Central anchor Ken Reid will be in town for the celebrations. Eyes of the nation will be on O’Leary and Ituna at approximately 7:30 p.m. (Atlantic) when the winner of Kraft Hockeyville will be declared.
