The community of Crossfield wants to be Kraft’s next Hockeyville, but it needs everyone’s help to do it.
“First round runs till March 2, and we just need community members, friends, family, grandparents, and you don't have to be part of CMHA, to just go onto Hockeyville to find Pete Knight Arena under nominated arenas," said Tayla Grochowich, who is in charge of fundraising and grants with Crossfield Minor Hockey.
According to the Kraft Hockeyville website, the competition begins with the Nomination and Rally phase, during which communities across Canada submit stories explaining why their community should be the next Kraft Hockeyville. Judges then review the nominations, calculate the total scores, and select the Top 4 finalists with the highest scores. The Top 4 then compete head-to-head in a round of voting to determine the winner. The winner will have a WHL game played in their home arena and would be given prize money of $250,000.
“There are three different ways that you can get involved,” explained Grochowich. “You can either upload photos of experiences at Pete Knight or you know grandkids, play hockey or play, do skating or whatever use for the arena. There's also just a little note section, just kind of notes of encouragement of why we want this to be a success. And then there's also a three-part just like questionnaire about what Pete Knight means to you and those who have used it.”
Grochowich said the Pete Knight Arena could do a lot with $250,000.
“I feel like our biggest concern right now is just space,” she stated. “On Sundays, for example, we don't even have enough locker rooms and change rooms to fit our needs. And so we have groups getting dressed just on the benches, sitting outside the ice. We don’t have enough dressing rooms for them. We're in desperate need of a new scoreboard and the system for that … Bathrooms in the main lobby– there's only two bathrooms that we have for the entire arena; so that would be a big one.
“And then lastly, I think one of the big concerns is our benches, and where everybody can sit to watch (in the stands), just are not super accessible. And so I just think it'd be great if we could find a more accessible way to have the community come out and cheer us on, and have people of all abilities and ages.”
Grochowich said these types of upgrades would benefit everyone who uses the Pete Knight Arena from hockey players, to CanSkate participants, to the local skating club, or anyone who books the arena for events or competition play in the region.
Grochowich hoped everyone in Crossfield and area could pull together to help get the community past the first round of Kraft Hockeyville voting.
“I would say that I just feel like the value of kids being active and having a sense of community and team is just so important and I think this is just such a way for us to just continue to have to see kids thrive,” she said. “I just feel like it's just such an easy, tangible way to help.”
To help put Crossfield over the top visit hockeyville.kraftheinz.com.
