Hockey fever
Winning Weekend celebration in O’Leary a fitting build-up to NHL exhibition game
Orville Willis swelled with pride Sunday as he took in the Kraft Hockeyville Winning Weekend celebrations.
Sitting in an events tent to escape the heat of the early fall day, the longtime O’Leary resident and businessman, praised the committee that spearheaded his community’s campaign to become Kraft Hockeyville 2017.
The party he was attending was evidence of the success of their campaign.
The passion for the game that helped O’Leary win out from around 3,000 entrants is not new, Willis said, recalling the time the O’Leary Maroons won the Island championship in the mid 1950s. “Everybody was hyped up so bad, they couldn’t wait for the next game.”
He said O’Leary fans often outnumbered the opposing team fans, even when they were on the road.
(The Hockeyville title) the best thing that ever happened to O’Leary, Prince Edward Island,” Willis said. “It will take a long time before they get something to follow it up.
“First of all, you’ve got to have a good committee in charge to take a hold of the whole thing and make it good, and we’ve got one of the best committees you could put together,” Willis assessed.
He said the win, announced in February, has made for a great summer and he was looking forward to the remaining piece of Hockeyville prize, today’s NHL exhibition game between the Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils in Summerside.
Sunday celebration
Special guests at Sunday’s outdoor festival included Sportsnet’s Ken Reid and Doug MacLean and retired NHL goaltender Pascal Leclaire. Reid conducted onstage interviews with both MacLean, a native of Summerside, and Leclaire. The party included a potato-peeling contest, awarded to a team of MacLean and Reid, Hockeyville committee member Della Sweet and younger Reid Hart, and a lobster-shelling contest, which Cory Gallant from the house band Old Doctor Young won.
Gallant will be the Canadian anthem-singer for today’s exhibition game.
Linda Ferrandini from Kraft Heinz congratulated O’Leary on its Hockeyville win, and presented the committee of Dean Getson, Tammy Rix, Bill MacKendrick, Della Sweet and Jo-Anne Wallace with the Kraft Hockeyville 2017 winning pennant.
“It was Della Sweet and the team’s story that made it to the top 10, and the rest was really up to everybody in this community, and you did a great job dominating two rounds of voting to be Kraft Hockeyville 2017,” she said.
Wallace addressed the crowd on behalf of the committee. “A huge thank you to Kraft Heinz for everything they’ve done for us and our community, and are going to be doing for our rink,” she said.
The rink gets the proceeds from merchandise sales and other promotions in addition to the $100,000 cheque that Kraft Heinz and its partners will be presenting Monday for arena upgrades.
Willis insists the biggest thanks needs to go to the committee.
“They really put things together so that everybody got to enjoy it, whether the old or whether it’s the young. It’s for the kids, it’s for everybody.” There was a festive atmosphere throughout the afternoon celebration.
The Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL put on a skills demonstration in the local arena and then mingled in the crowd.
The UPEI Women’s Panthers hosted a skills clinic prior to taking on the St. Thomas Tommies in an AUS exhibition game. There were even three Don Cherry look-a-likes wandering through the crowd.