Awesome

To find out Monday that the Fort Frances Curling Club’s bid beat Dryden in the final match-up of the annual “Kraft Celebration Tour” was impressive—and exciting—enough.
To learn the local project amassed more than 518,000 online votes over a 24-hour period was downright incredible. Not only did that easily top Dryden’s final tally of 272,292 but it tripled what many other communities had managed in their respective head-to-head showdowns over the previous nine days.
It was a fitting testament to the excellent work the organizing committee did in rallying the community to the cause—and the dedication of those who stayed up through the night Friday to keep casting votes right up to the final second.
In the end, the curling club earned $25,000 to go towards offsetting the cost of its new geothermal heating unit. As well, TSN is coming to town on Sunday, Aug. 25 to do a live broadcast of SportsCentre while Kraft stages a community barbecue.
Most important, though, is the sense of community spirit and pride that blossomed in the lead-up to the vote, which then erupted in jubilation when the results were announced after an agonizing 54 hours of anxious waiting.
The “Kraft Celebration Tour” aptly demonstrated what we can accomplish when putting our collective hearts and minds into something, which one just cannot put a price tag on.
It is an invaluable lesson we can tap into down the road—no matter what the circumstance may be.
Congratulations to everyone involved. But thanks, especially, for rekindling in us what it means to be a community.
That is what’s most awesome of all.