SUNDRE – When the winners of last year’s Kraft Hockeyville title threw their name into the running for a chance to win some cash for their local arena, the nomination rally period to submit stories and photos was less than one week away from the deadline.
“For us, we actually only submitted to participate six days before the close of the nomination rally,” said Jessica Small, a co-chair at the West Lorne Arena in Ontario.
“One of the reps from the NHL players’ association was like, ‘You guys came out of nowhere!’” Small told the Albertan on Feb. 5 during a phone interview.
“I think it just goes to show there is this underlying passion in our community, and we just needed Kraft Hockeyville to kind of let that shine,” she said.
The Sundre Arena was recently added to the list of contenders for the 2024 Kraft Hockeyville title, which earns the winning community not only $250,000 for facility upgrades but also an opportunity to host a pre-season NHL game.
Small was asked how West Lorne went about about encouraging people in their community to get fired up and submit nominations to support their successful bid.
“Our strategy was always to get other people to do the work for us – word of mouth, reaching out to everyone and anyone who ever played hockey in West Lorne arena, partnering with our minor hockey association, the skating club, all of the users of the arena like men’s leagues and all that stuff to get their pictures out, tell their stories and share it as much as a possible,” Small said.
While Kraft Hockeyville as per its namesake of course has a focus on Canada’s national sport, the funds awarded to the winning community’s arena benefits all user groups, she said.
“There are so many secondary beneficiaries of the money and the renovations and the plans that are to come,” she said.
“Even public skating, we’ve seen a boost in that; there are community groups coming out of everywhere paying for public skating for kids and their families to come out every week throughout the winter.”
Seeing as West Lorne’s arena only just won this past year, Small said when asked if perhaps it was too early to inquire what kind of difference winning had made for their facility, “Definitely not too early; it was almost instant. It was a gamechanger for us to be a part of an elite group of only 17 small town communities to win the Kraft Hockeyville title.
“It put our little town West Lorne on the map, but what it also did was it revitalized the passion for hockey that our town and community has always had,” she said.
Recalling her past experiences as a youth, she remembered the arena once being packed every Friday and Saturday night.
“As time went on, that kind of dwindled a little bit,” she said, adding the COVID-19 pandemic then came along.
But winning the Kraft Hockeyville title seems to have reinvigorated the community’s support for their arena, she said.
“This has just brought that excitement back,” she said, adding the crowds seem to once again be packing the stands.
With regards to what the funds represent for their aged arena, which was rebuilt in 1958 after burning down and has since only had modest renovations, she said, “I think winning Kraft Hockeyville was like the catalyst to launch us into thinking about doing more than just what that $250,000 will do.”
Efforts in West Lorne to consult the community to solicit feedback on future plans has yielded some input and an engineer has been brought onboard, but there’s yet some distance ahead before more extensive upgrades can be done.
“It’s a long road and we’re going to need a lot more fundraising to do what we really want to do,” she said.
“It was always about the dressing rooms and the entrance to our arena,” she said when asked what kinds of renovations they’re planning.
With only four dressing rooms available, their facility can host only small tournaments, while the dated entranceway opens up right into the ice surface’s area, she said.
“And that is really strenuous on our compressor system,” she said, adding that makes early-season ice preparation quite a challenging feat.
Extending her best wishes for Sundre’s arena, Small said, “It’s a whirlwind for sure and you learn a lot, but it’s great to see your community come together and everyone steps up to do anything and everything.”
The nomination rally period’s deadline is Feb. 18 and anyone who is so inclined to share their stories and photos is encouraged to visit hockeyville.kraftcanada.ca and click on “Find My Arena” to search for the Sundre Arena.
