Some residents have decided that this year Drumheller should be Hockeyville.
The national contest, is sponsored by Kraft, to upgrade hometown arenas is back. Local resident and hockey fan Sonja Courtenay nominated the community in hopes of winning up to $100,000 in arena upgrades.
She submitted the nomination on January 14.
“Our community has amazing passion for our hockey, whether it’s our AJHL team or our kids. Our community volunteers and does anything they can to help out where needed to make sure kids get the chance to play and watch hockey in our community,” she states in her application.
To be considered for the judging, one of the requirements is social media engagement and that means liking and sharing the Drumheller Memorial Arena nomination page. To be engage, click here.
She is passionate about her hockey.
“I have been watching hockey in Drumheller for over 10 years now, and we have the same arena. We did some upgrades last year over the summer, we have some new equipment in there, but honestly we could use more,” she said. “I think hockey brings our community together, it brings people from Hanna out and lots of the surrounding areas, kids play and the community gets involved in it, so it is a great thing to have.”
She is getting good support.
“There have been some comments from people in town,” she said.
Supporters have also posted a video about the Drumheller Dragons.
Jason Blanke, the Voice of the Dragons, knows arenas throughout the AJHL. He supports the initiative and has been spreading it on social media.
Some place he sees a need includes upgrading the concession facility.
“They do an awesome job, but they could use something new themselves,” he said.
He would also love to see seats in the arena.
“We have a fantastic arena and when it is full, it is rocking,” he said. “We don’t’ need a new building, but we want to keep making this one better,” said Blanke.
This is the 10th year for Hockeyville and in that time, it has distributed $2 million to communities across Canada.
Nominations close on February 7. There is one round of judging and two rounds of voting. After the initial round of judging, the top 10 will be announced on March 5.
“It’s a great arena, it has a lot of history, it just has to be fixed up a bit,” said Courtenay.