Weekend festival leads up to NHL game

The excitement is noticeable in Jo-anne Wallace’s voice as she runs through the list of activities planned for the Kraft Hockeyville Winning Weekend celebration.

Wallace is a member of the group that spearheaded the campaign to bring the 2017 national title of Kraft Hockeyville to O’Leary.

Like the rest of the province, the committee, which also consists of Della Sweet, Tammy Rix, Dean Getson and Bill MacKendrick, learned on national television on April 1, that O’Leary is Kraft Hockeyville 2017.

The committee had done much work up to that point; but it pails in comparison to all of the planning that went into preparing for this weekend’s big celebration, which includes the delivery of the grand prize.

“There is so much happening,” Wallace gushed Tuesday.

The celebration culminates in an NHL exhibition game in Summerside on Monday, Sept. 25, between the Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils.

During the game, the committee will accept the grand prize cheque of $100,000 for arena upgrades.

Sweet had accepted the Hockeyville Cup on behalf of the committee nearly five months ago.

All celebration weekend events leading up to the NHL exhibition game will be staged in O’Leary.

NHL alumni Colin White will be in attendance for Saturday’s activities that get started at 9:30 a.m. with an Initiation Jamboree.

White played defence with the New Jersey Devils from 1999 until 2011, winning Stanley Cups with them in 2000 and 2003. He finished out his NHL career with San Jose Sharks in 2011-12

Doug MacLean and Ken Reid from Sportsnet TV will be in attendance throughout the weekend.

The response to the festival, Wallace said, “is really strong as far as people telling us how excited they are about it.”