Lucas Punkari
The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur for Fort Frances Curling Club member Patrick Briere since he and Ron Silver’s bid was announced as one of the 20 finalists for this year’s “Kraft Celebration Tour.”
But as Friday’s head-to-head showdown against a bid supporting a new outdoor track in Dryden draws near, the amount of support he has seen around the community ahead of the 24-hour online voting period has been overwhelming.
“The way that Fort Frances has gotten behind this bid has been amazing, and it’s been the biggest eye-opener for me,” Briere enthused.
“We went around town both here and in the Falls on Saturday to hand out and put up posters, and we could count the number of people on one hand that didn’t know about the vote, which is awesome to see,” he remarked.
Right now, Briere and his support team are going on a “all-out blitz” to make sure everyone will be voting online starting this Friday at 11 a.m. (CDT) as they look to win $25,000 towards the curling club’s geothermal project as well as host a live taping of TSN’s SportsCentre next month.
“It’s been pretty crazy with lots going on at the moment,” Briere admitted.
“But our biggest thing right now is to make sure that everyone is voting on Friday and Saturday,” he said.
“We have a great support team with Barb Roy, Dave Legg, Charles Fisher, and Scott Avis leading the way, along with many others around the community who have been helping out to get the word out to everyone,” Briere added.
“The only way we can beat Dryden is by having everyone’s support in the community,” he stressed.
The voting process will conclude Saturday at 10:59 a.m. (CDT), with the final results being announced on TSN’s SportsCentre next Monday evening.
In order for a vote to count, people have to click on the bid they want to support on the official “Kraft Celebration Tour” website and type in a security code.
“The process is very simple, and people can vote for our bid as many times as they want during [the] 24-hour period,” Briere explained.
“We will be shutting down our curling club website, as well, on Friday so that the only thing people will see is a ‘Kraft Celebration’ vote button, which will take them right to the voting page,” he added.
Local business also will be lending their support during the course of Friday, with 10 locations allowing people to vote during their respective business hours.
“We’ve had some support from the library and Confederation College to provide us with laptops for those locations,” Briere noted.
“The biggest thing that we are working on right now is getting volunteers to help the man those stations, and we would really like those students who still need their high school volunteers hours to come out and fill those roles,” he added.
“At locations like Boston Pizza and From the Grind Up, their staff members will be busy with their regular jobs and they will be unable to watch over the computers as a result.”
The Fort Frances Curling Club, La Place Rendez-Vous, McDonald’s, Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre, Fort Frances Museum, the local Chamber of Commerce office, and Wilson’s Business Solutions also will have computers in their locations, where people can vote during their respective business hours.
Those who want to help out can call the curling club at 274-6667 or Briere at 276-2293.
The curling cub, meanwhile, will be a beehive of activity during the vote, with plans for it to stay open all night long.
“There will be a handful of us who plan to stay up all night long voting,” Briere noted.
“So if anyone is bored, they can come by and help us out,” he laughed.
“We will also be holding a free barbecue starting at 4 p.m. that will feature all Kraft products that were donated from Safeway,” Briere continued.
“And we will also be raffling off two tickets to our comedy night on the Thursday of the bass tournament for anyone that votes here.”
