National contest halted
Glace Bay Miners disappointed with Good Deeds Cup voting issue
The Glace Bay Miners were hoping to hear their name announced as the winner of the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup on April 9, but that may no longer be the case.
The Peewee ‘A’ hockey team recently entered the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup, a national contest for minor hockey teams who exhibit good behavior on and off the ice.
Over the weekend, the contest was halted after Chevrolet was made aware of online voting issues.
Miners coach Kenzie Wadden said the team found out about the news via email on Saturday.
“It’s unfortunate, but if there was online voting issues then the team would like to see that resolved,” he said. “Things have to be done the fair way.”
Voting for the contest started last Thursday and was expected to run until today. The Miners were leading in votes with more than 5,000 on the first day, before votes for two other teams suddenly took off.
After that, Chevrolet Canada announced online voting had been “compromised.” In a release on it’s website, Chevrolet Canada said: “The Good Deeds Cup was created to inspire Canadians to be better citizens. We therefore take this issue very seriously and want to apologize to those impacted.”
Chevrolet Canada also said the company plans to relaunch the voting phase of the contest, meaning all 13 teams will once again start from zero.
“It’s unfortunate because we were on the news, on the radio, and in the paper a couple of times, so we put a lot of work into it,” said Wadden. “They had to do what they had to do and we understand that.”
Wadden said the team entered the contest because the players wanted to be part of it.
“I brought the idea to the guys at a practice and asked them if it would be something they would like to do and they said yes,” he said. “We left it with them to come up with an idea and they picked visiting a nursing home.”
The Miners fulfilled their good deed by visiting residents at Taigh Na Mara nursing home in Glace Bay. The players handed out cupcakes, gave out plants as Valentine’s Day gifts, and went room to room visiting seniors and sharing stories and life experiences, all this captured on video for their contest entry.
“It was awesome, especially because the kids came up with the idea themselves to visit the nursing home,” said Wadden. “It wasn’t something we forced upon them and said you have to do it. This is something they wanted to do.”
“The players really soaked in the opportunity of visiting the seniors and they really enjoyed talking with them,” said Wadden.
The start date for the new voting phase has not yet been announced.
The winning team will receive $15,000, with $5,000 for the charity of their choice and the rest going to the team. The Miners have chosen the Alzheimer Society of Nova Scotia as its charity, if they win.
For now, the Miners will turn their attention to their final tournament of` the season. The club will participate in the SEDMHA Minor Hockey Tournament this weekend in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
The Miners will open the tournament on Thursday against the TASA Ducks at 4:30 p.m. at Cole Harbour Place. The remainder of the team schedule has yet to be determined.
The team will once again focus on the Good Deeds Cup after this weekend’s tournament.