Honouring the the Fab Five
Winner of O’Leary’s volunteers of the year is committee that led Hockeyville campaign
They are the “Fab Five” and now, as a unit, they are the winners of O’Leary’s Volunteer of the Year.
The Fab Five — Della Sweet, Billy MacKendrick, Dean Getson, Tammy Rix and JoAnne Wallace — were presented with the award during the Town of O’Leary Canada Day celebration.
“These five people are now known, and always will be known, as the Fab Five,” said O’Leary recreation director Jeff Ellsworth in reading the citation, which recognized their leadership in helping O’Leary win the national title of Kraft Hockeyville 2017.
“The community spirit and pride it brought to everyone involved, near and far, was mind-blowing,” he said. “They put everything they had into making this dream come true for O’Leary, for the kids and for the community.”
Wallace, speaking on behalf of the committee, stressed the Hockeyville prize was a result of a broad effort that extended across the country.
She promised a community festival in celebration of the title win prior to the Hockeyville NHL exhibition game prize in September. The five committee members brought along the Kraft Hockeyville cup and passed it through the crowd for picture-taking moments.
“It wasn’t just the winning of the Hockeyville Cup that was so inspiring – it was also everything leading up to it,” Ellsworth reflected.
“There was so much community spirit and community pride it was contagious, and it all started with these five people who are not robots, but they sure put in more work than one.”
Robots was in reference to voters needing to confirm they were not robots each time they cast an online vote for Hockeyville.
Winning Hockeyville, it was noted, was one of O’Leary’s proudest moments to date.