Staff
With just over a day left for new communities to be nominated, Fort Frances appears to be in good shape to advance to the next round of Kraft “Hockeyville” 2014.
As of this morning, the home page for Fort Frances on the “Hockeyville” website (krafthockeyville.cbc.ca) showed 153 members having signed up and 270 stories or videos uploaded.
That gives the town the fourth-most uploads in the West bracket of the contest behind Sylvan Lake, Alta. (821), Salmon Arm, B.C. (611), and Castlegar, B.C. (400).
Fort Frances, meanwhile, has the fifth-most members in the West bracket, behind Sylvan Lake (838), Salmon Arm (757), Castlegar (340), and Strasbourgh, Sask. (190).
But the local numbers have a good chance of growing tonight and tomorrow thanks to a co-operative effort between local “Hockeyville” bid organizers, the Muskie boys’ hockey team, and the Fort Frances Lakers.
A “Hockeyville” display will be set up during the Muskie boys’ game against the Sioux Lookout Warriors tonight at 7:15 p.m., as well as during tomorrow Lakers’ game against the Minnesota Iron Rangers at 7:30 p.m.
Laptops will be available to the public to add their names and stories to the Fort Frances page to improve the community’s chances at moving on.
The deadline to join and submit uploads to the Fort Frances page is midnight tomorrow (Feb. 8).
At that point, the website will not accept any more members or uploads.
The Kraft “Hockeyville” judging panel then will begin deliberations as to the top 16 communities in Canada that will move on—eight from the West and eight from the East.
Each of those communities is guaranteed $25,000 in arena upgrades, with the chance to compete for the grand prize of $100,000 in arena upgrades.
The winning community also will get to host an NHL pre-season game and receive a visit from a CBC-TV crew to record the moment.
In related news, a meeting has been scheduled for next Saturday (Feb. 15) at 7:30 p.m. at the Memorial Sports Centre for local “Hockeyville” bid supporters to plan the next steps should Fort Frances be announced as one of the top 16 during CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” on March 8.
Those wanting to support the Fort Frances bid can go to the website and click on the “Find Your Community” link.
Then type in “Memorial Sports Centre” into the “Community Name” box on the page and click the “Join” link on the right side of the page.
