Kinsmen hosts new Sticks ‘n Spurs with sports celebrities
A new fundraising event by the Swift Current Kinsmen Club will provide a memorable evening in the company of several sports celebrities.
The Swift Current Kinsmen Club is hosting the Sticks ‘n Spurs fundraiser on March 9 at the Legion Hall featuring three professional bull riders from southwest Saskatchewan and two former NHL hockey players.
“It’s definitely a new event that we’ve come up with and everyone’s excited about it,” Kinsmen Club member and event coordinator Mike Wagner said. “Hopefully it goes well and it’s something that we would probably build on in the coming years and have additional events similar like it.”
The club wanted to create an event to highlight local professional bull riders in combination with top level hockey players.
“We wanted to showcase the local professional bull riders in southwest Saskatchewan, just with the success that they have had the last few years, and bring in some of the EX-NHL players to do a joint event between the two that more or less brings the entire agriculture and hockey community of southwest Saskatchewan together,” he said.
The featured bull riders at the event will be Dakota Buttar from Eatonia, Chad Hartman from Lancer and Blake Smith from Abbey. They will be joined by former NHL players Zack Smith and Eric Gryba. Buttar won the 2023 PBR Canada Championship, which is the second national title of his career, and he was the 2022 Calgary Stampede bull riding co-champion.
Chad Hartman is a rising star on the professional bull riding circuit. He already competed three times at the PBR Canada finals and he was the 2023 Cody Snyder Bull Bustin’ champion.
Blake Smith won the Elk Ridge Resort PBR championship title in 2022 and 2023. He also won the 2022 Brandon PBR Cup Series.
Maple Creek product Zack Smith played 221 regular season games with the Swift Current Broncos from 2004 to 2008 and he was also team captain in 2007-08. The Broncos recently hired him as an assistant coach with the club. He made his NHL debut in 2008 with the Ottawa Senators and played 11 seasons with the team. He played one season with the Chicago Blackhawks and retired from the NHL in 2021.
Eric Gryba played for three NHL teams during a decade long professional career, starting with the Ottawa Senators and thereafter with the Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils. He grew up in Saskatoon, but also has a family connection with the Consul area in southwest Saskatchewan.
The fundraising event will start with an introduction of the five celebrities and then they will be auctioned off to determine the table where they will be seated for supper.
“If you want to have supper and get to know them more on a one-on-one right
away, you can purchase them and they’ll eat at your table,” Wagner said.
The prime rib supper is catered by award-winning chef Rusty Thienes from Harvest Eatery. Wagner noted that it was certainly a key aspect of this event to have the meal prepared by Harvest Eatery.
“We’ve had them for other events and it was a no-brainer to have them on board with us,” he said.
There will be a question-and-answer session after the supper with each of the sports celebrities that will most likely result in plenty of laughs and sharing of some interesting details about their careers.
“We will have questions lined up for them, but also if anyone in attendance wants to ask them specific questions about maybe their favourite bull to ride or their favourite NHL arena to play in, they can definitely ask those questions,” he said.
There will be silent and live auctions during the evening that promises to provide additional excitement and interest, because auction items will include signed jerseys of some top-ranked active players in the NHL. There will also be bull riding photos that are personally signed by those bull riders participating in the event. Details about live and silent auction items will be revealed in the run-up to the event on the Kinsmen Club’s social media platforms.
All proceeds from this fundraising event will be used by the Swift Current Kinsmen Club to support local nonprofit organizations.
“The plan is to go to different organizations and donate the money right back to the community,” he said.
Tickets are $100 each or $800 for a table of eight. Major corporate sponsors for the event can obtain a VIP table for eight for $1,500. These tables will be located closest to the celebrities for the program after supper and this price includes sponsor recognition in the run-up to the event and during the evening.
Tickets are available from any club member or by calling 306-741-5242 or 306-861-4646. Details and any updates about the event are also posted on the Swift Current Kinsmen Club social media platforms.