INNISFAIL - The Innisfail community came out and showed its support for its Innisfail Eagles during the 3rd annual Sportsman Dinner.
The fundraising event took place at the Royal Canadian Legion on Oct. 7 and kicked off fundraising efforts for the new addition to the Innisfail Arena.
“We had some Eagles alumni there, we had a phenomenal turnout of current players, we had a lot of our fans and sponsors and families of players,” said Dusty Daines, president of the Innisfail Eagles. “It was great to see that support.”
Just over 250 people packed the legion for the Sportsman Dinner and enjoyed a roast beef dinner, shared in some of the history of the Innisfail Eagles, participated in a Hot Stove roundtable and listened to several special guests, in addition to other features of the evening.
“Besides the dinner we had live and silent auctions, we had door prizes throughout the night and we had a draw,” said Daines, noting the entertainment provided by special guests in both the rodeo and hockey worlds, including Rhett Warrener, Peter Maher, Mike Rogers and Rob Brown.
In addition, guests in attendance had the opportunity to meet the 2016-17 Innisfail Eagles and some of the new faces expected to hit the ice this season.
“It's great having the hometown boy on our team, Andy Willigar, who is just new this year,” said Daines. “That raised quite a bit of excitement with the crowd that night when he was introduced.”
The Sportsman Dinner was the first of several planned fundraisers for the recently approved arena facility, which will have a total cost of $370,000, split between the town and Eagles. The new facility will include a large new professional dressing and meeting room for the Eagles, a trainer's room, coach's office, team storage space and an area for players to meet and greet family members. Team officials said last week the total amount raised at the Oct. 7 fundraiser had not been finalized.
Daines said the team is excited about the upcoming Eagles season, set to open on Oct. 21.
“We're looking forward to getting it started,” said Daines.
Dusty Daines
"It was great to see that support."
