Elliot Lake is finalist for the Kraft Hockeyville competition, which has sparked a lot of support as voting day nears. The community is hoping to be able to use the $250,000 first prize to repair the Centennial Arena, which has been closed since September.
The 32-hour voting window opens at 9 a.m. on Friday March 29 and closes at 5 p.m. on Saturday March 30. Those aged 14 and up from across Canada can vote several times through KraftHockeyville.ca. People are urged to pre-register to make the process easier.
Plans are being finalized to help assist Elliot Lake residents with voting, and to celebrate with supporters leading up to the announcement of the winning community, which is expected during the first intermission of Hockey Night in Canada's broadcast Saturday.
Earlier this month, Elliot Lake found out it was one of four finalists for the top prize. Since then, social media has been flooded with people, organizations, schools, businesses, and neighbouring communities posting their well wishes for Elliot Lake’s bid and urging people to vote.
The Hockeyville competition started with a nomination stage, where people submitted stories sharing their connection to the game of hockey and their local arenas. Among them was one posted by local hockey and community supporter, real estate agent Christine Brunet, which topped the group of submissions for Elliot Lake.
Deputy mayor Charles Flintoff took part in a video along with several young people, who laid out where the community was and how it was coping with the arena being closed to minor hockey players, figure skaters, its Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Elliot Lake Vikings club and the general public for recreational skating.
One truly gripping and heartfelt video was posted by Our Lady of Lourdes teacher Vince Ucci and narrated by students Davin and Charlotte. The narrators took viewers through the recent past in Elliot Lake and the trials residents have endured, including the 2012 tragic collapse of the city’s shopping mall, which resulted in it being demolished, the Civic Centre home to the arts that was demolished when the roof collapsed in 2019 and the municipal pool that has been closed for two years and is undergoing repairs.
The addition of the Centennial Arena closure was felt by many people living here.
“It’s a place you hang out with friends and watch the game of hockey played. It’s a place you can go and recognize everybody’s faces,” Charlotte said in the video.
Davin pointed out the arena was a place where kids learned to play hockey.
“It’s a place where everyone feels like family,” Davin said.
Ucci recalled growing up in the city and playing hockey in Centennial Arena, an experience that is not currently available to Elliot Lake’s young people.
Neighbouring communities are also showing support. Blind River’s hockey clubs and its council have posted a video urging people to vote for Elliot Lake’s bid. Messages have also come in from former residents and friends of current residents living elsewhere in the country.
Locally, Our Lady of Fatima posted a video to Facebook to help drum up support, as did St. Joseph's General Hospital which challenged Elliot Lake Secondary School and ELNOS to vote.
Every vote counts in this bid.
On Monday, city councillors took the opportunity to promote the Hockeyville competition by dressing in their favourite team jerseys.
To assist with voting and to make it easier for people who may not have a computer, the local Hockeyville committee is arranging several events on Friday and Saturday to coincide with voting days.
Voting stations will open at Collins Hall at 9 a.m. Friday and run until 4 p.m. Elliot Lake minor hockey will be on-site holding a barbecue from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a voting party on Friday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Granite Curling Club.
On Saturday, the Collins Hall voting station will open at 9 a.m. and run until the voting window closes at 5 p.m. During that time there will be activities for kids, there's a tentative plan for a ball hockey tournament and Esten School will operate a canteen from 11 a.m. to 7p.m. Plans are also in the works to hold another barbecue that day.
That evening at Collins Hall, two large-screen televisions will be set up to view the results as they are announced during Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada game after the first period.
Kraft Hockeyville has established a longstanding commitment to building strong and inclusive communities across the country through the love of the game of hockey. The program has awarded over $4.8 million to 97 communities over the past 18 years in support of revitalizing Canada’s aging sports and recreation infrastructure.
As the Lourde’s narrators pointed out in their video – “Elliot Lake is Hockeyville” and “Centennial Arena is Hockeyville.”
