Members of the organizing committee behind O’Leary’s nomination know they received wide-spread support during the 39-hour voting spree, and believe O’Leary is very much in contention.
But anyone who thinks the committee has just been sitting back this week waiting for Saturday night’s announcement would be incorrect.
They’ve been doing lots behind-the-scenes,
just in case.
Like arranging for potential hard-wired voting stations and encouraging people
to organize voting parties.
If the vote goes O’Leary’s way, they need to get the word out fast.
“We’re getting everything ready now so that it won’t take long, because we need to get to bed. Because (voting) starts at 10 o’clock (Sunday) morning,” said Jo-Anne Wallace.
“If we win, it’s go-time.”
There were five communities from eastern Canada – O’Leary being the only one form the Maritimes – and five from the west in the Top-10 voting. On Saturday night, following the first period of Hockey Night in Canada’s sportscast of the Edmonton-Vancouver game, somewhere close to midnight, the East-vs-West finalists will be announced. Both of those communities will see the $25,000 in arena upgrades they received for making Top-10 quadruple to $100,000 and they will suddenly have a one-in-two chance of becoming Kraft Hockeyville 2017 and the opportunity to host a 2017 NHL pre-season hockey game.
The O’Leary committee invites supporters to join them for a party at the Maple Leaf Curling Club in anticipation of the announcement.
The campaign to become Hockeyville is a community effort, the committee says.
“It is a community thing, but it is an Island community,” Bill MacKendrick stresses.
It’s even bigger than that, says Jo-Anne Wallace, pointing out their effort has garnered widespread support throughout the Maritimes, from acquaintances across the country and around the world and even form people with no direct connection with O’Leary.
“They’ve caught the bug. They’ve caught the spark and are saying, ‘this is Small Places, Canada’s big-thing,” Wallace summarizes.
Of course, if O’Leary is successful, the committee wants to ensure the supporters keep that bug for the ensuing 39-hour final voting period.
“We’re getting everything ready now so that it won’t take long because we need to get to bed,” Wallace said of the committee’s efforts this week. “Because (voting) starts at 10 o’clock in the morning.”
Digital road signs would go back out and voting stations would need to be re-activated.
“We’re trying to focus more on the 39 hours in our voting stations, to have all the hard-wired computers manned for, hopefully, the 39 hours,” said Della Sweet.
“Continuous voting,” says Tammy Rix, is a goal for the next round if O’Leary makes it through.
The committee is also encouraging supporters close by and around the globe to organize what they’re calling voting parties. It’s even more fun and more productive in a group setting, Dean Getson reveals.
A small community of 860 can’t compete, budget-wise with large communities, “but we can compete with them community-spirit-wise,” MacKendrick stresses.
“That’s the beauty about being small and not having a big budget: everybody’s doing it just because they’re interested in doing it,” Getson adds.
“I think people are so on-side that it is, ‘what can I do, specifically, to help things?’” MacKendrick said in expressing appreciation for the ongoing offers of encouragement.
