By David F. Rooney
Could our fair city win that most coveted of Canadian sports labels: Hockeyville?
An ad hoc committee thinks so and has convinced City Council to bless its efforts to win the community status as Kraft Hockeyville 2010.
“Earlier this month, a group of local individuals decided to come together to try to bring Revelstoke to this competition in the hopes of showcasing our community spirit, and pride in a cornerstone of our community, the Revelstoke Forum and our love of hockey,” new resident Gary McLaughlin told City Council on Tuesday.
“So far we’ve received support from the Revelstoke Secondary School, community businesses, Forum staff, local news and radio outlets and service organizations such as Rotary. Each of these groups recognize the wonderful opportunity this competition brings, not only for the chance to win, but to have a single community initiative that we can all get behind and support. We also have received support from members of the successful Terrace Hockeyville 2009 committee inclusive of the chairman, a definite feather in our cap.”
He told Mayor Dave Raven and City Councillors that, once the committee has its support it can proceed to the next step which is to produce a 500-word community profile and three photographs which will be added to the official Hockeyville website along with those from an estimated 10,000 other communities.
“After that an effort is launched to have the community complete their stories and add them to the site,” McLaughlin said. “The more support the better our chances.”
Dennis Berarducci, who knows more about the history of hockey in our town than 99% of the population says Revelstoke has as good a shot at winning as any other community.
“It’s really all up to us,” he said. “We have to convince everyone else who votes that we are the best choice. Golden tried it and got to the third stage but didn’t get to the fourth. We’ve got a lot of stuff in the History of Hockey (Museum at the Forum) that could be of benefit to us.”
Councillors unanimously approved McLaughlin’s bid for approval. The ad hoc committee will be meeting again soon. Details about the next step will be published in The Revelstoke Current as they are released. In the meantime, please send your opinion about this bid for community sports immortality to editor@revelstokecurrent.com or post it at the bottom of the story
