Wolseley asking for Saskatchewan’s help to claim Kraft Hockeyville title

The town of Wolseley needs a little help as it tries to make history.

The community located about 100 kilometres east of Regina is trying to become the first Saskatchewan community to win the Kraft Hockeyville contest. The annual competition has been running since 2006.

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A win would be huge for Wolseley, as it would receive $250,000 to help cover $600,000 in arena upgrades — including the replacement of its current ice plant.

“It’s on Year 44 of a 25-year design. It was doing great just three summers ago and then our volunteer fire chief — who also happened to be the master of the plant — had a heart attack,” said Vance Weber, who’s one of the organizers of the town’s Hockeyville campaign.

“Since then, even though people have stepped up every year, it’s starting to suffer. We know the end is near. We’ve raised over $100,000 already, but we know this $250,000 is going to get us a lot closer to our $600,000 goal.”

In order to win the competition, Wolseley must beat out Enderby, B.C., Cochrane, Alta., and Elliot Lake, Ont., in the final round of balloting. Voting opened Friday morning and goes until 3 p.m. Saskatchewan time on Saturday.

The winner will be announced during the first intermission of Hockey Night in Canada later that night.

Weber suggests Wolseley won’t have a shortage of voting stations.

“It’s amazing how this community has gotten involved,” said Weber. “We’ve done everything from painting the ice to shinny tournaments (to) organizing crib tournaments and we’re setting up registration stations for the elderly – we’re going to serve them coffee all day to help keep them wired and voting.

“Our arena will be the hub, but we’ve also got some other stations set up with some computers to help us out with our goal,” he added. “If people can start voting throughout Saskatchewan and keep voting until 3 p.m. on the 30th it’ll be amazing.”

Weber said for Saturday night’s announcement, the whole community will be out for what will hopefully be a celebration.

“We’re at the arena. We’ve got music planned, we’ve got the game up on a projector on the wall, (and) we’ve got a bar, of course,” he explained.

Weber has one message for people throughout Saskatchewan and that message is vote.

“Go to krafthockeyville.ca and register to vote. Vote over and over again straight through until 3 p.m. on March 30. That’s when they close down the voting and hopefully you see the town of Wolseley winning it for Saskatchewan,” he said.

If the community wins Kraft Hockeyville, it will also be given the opportunity to host an NHL pre-season game. Weber confirmed if Wolseley does win, it’ll be hosting the game in Regina at the Brandt Centre.

“We can’t host it,” he said. “Our plant would blow up if we looked at it funny in September.”