Chatham-Kent’s online prowess continues, but organizers of the Chatham entry into the Kraft Hockeyville contest hope it will go two steps further.
We landed Boardwalk in the Canadian Monopoly game in 2010. A year later, Wallaceburg placed in the top 10 in the Kraft Celebration Tour. And now Chatham is in the top 10 for the Kraft Hockeyville contest.
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The Chatham Hockeyville contingent learned on the weekend they’d cracked the top 10, but a quick round of high-fives has been replaced by the push for No. 1.
The winning community will host an NHL preseason hockey game, and the host arena will see a slew of upgrades and receive $100,000 towards even more improvements.
Chatham’s venerable Memorial Arena was built in 1949. It is in dire need of either replacement or a serious makeover. If Chatham tops the voting in the Hockeyville contest, some of that makeover will be done without local taxpayers having to shell out a cent.
Dennis Parker, a member of the Chatham Hockeyville committee, urges people to continue to work their magic online, as voting for the next round in Hockeyville begins Saturday (March 21), and ends March 23.
“We’ve got 48 hours to get into top two,” he said.
If Chatham gets into the final, another round of voting takes place March 28, with the top vote getter from the final two rounds of voting winning the contest.
People had between Jan. 1 and Feb. 8 to nominate communities to take part in Hockeyville. Parker said Chatham Maroons superfan Chad Peterson led the charge. He started a website prior to Jan. 1, actually.
“He’s been going above and beyond on this,” Parker said.
Peterson, who doesn’t miss Maroon home games and dons a hard hat in Maroon team colours, topped with a flashing light, thinks Chatham could really benefit from winning Hockeyville, according to comments he made on the Hockeyville website.
“I want to get two NHL teams to come here to do a preseason game. Plus we will get upgrades,” he said of Memorial Arena. “And I want to get Chatham involved.”
So does Parker. He was out late Sunday afternoon and into the evening stapling Hockeyville information sheets to telephone poles from Gregory Drive down to Tweedsmuir Avenue. And he was getting people’s attention.
“I had my big Kraft Hockeyville cardboard hat on. It drew a lot of attention. Perfect. That’s exactly what I want,” he said.
Parker, a father of four, said he would love to see Chatham land this big hockey fish.
“I’d love to see an NHL hockey game here and I’d love to see Memorial Arena get a huge facelift,” he said.
To vote, on March 21-23, please visit www.khv2015.ca/en/
Chatham is up against such places as Haliburton, Ont.; Dawson Creek, B.C.; and Goose Bay, Nfld.
