The Wild Warriors (Pee Wee Team 4) won the Salmon Arm tournament this past weekend. They were undefeated in all Six games they played. Congrats!
With less than three weeks to go before the nomination phase of the 2012 Kraft Hockeyville competition closes and the first round of finalists fall to the hands of the Kraft hockeyville judges, West Kelowna is doing GREAT!
We now have, at last check, 289 submissions to the Kraft Hockeyville website, and from what we've heard there are still a ton to come. We've been consistently on Kraft's Hockeyville Leaderboard, updated weekly, celebrating the top ten people who post each week for their communities!
But over the past few weeks, I've had several people ask me what happens from here and how the voting and shortlisting phases work.
So here's the deal...
As of the end of the month, no more communities can nominate themselves as the contest entry stage officially closes. At the beginning of February, our friends at Kraft and CBC lock themselves away in a room with truckloads of Kraft Mac & Cheese (I'm jealous) and sift through all the officially nominated communities, selecting the top three from each region based on several criteria, including community spirit, and those communities make it to the next round of the competition. There are five regions in total. We are included in the BC/Yukon region.
The top 15 communities, three from each region, will then be announced on CBC during Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, March 3rd.
Here's the tricky part. Once the shortlisted communities are announced, the very next day, Sunday, March 4th, voting opens for THREE DAYS ONLY, 12:01am March 4th - 8:59pm, March 6th! Anyone over the age of 13, anywhere can vote for their favourite community by phone or online, details for voting will be released just prior to the announcement.
During the three days of voting, we're encouraging EVERYONE to go voting crazy... get online, man that phone and start voting for West Kelowna. But remember, anyone from anywhere can vote, so call Aunt Beatrice out of town and get her to vote. Uncle Phil, Grandma, your college buddies, they can all vote and we need your support.
EVERY vote WILL count and help us reach our goal. We know we have the spirit in West Kelowna to win this, but as of March 4th, the winner will be determined by you and everyone in our community, and communities across Canada. It falls to us, all of us, to do our part and get involved!
On Saturday, March 17th during Hockey Night In Canada on CBC, the five top finalists, one per region, will be announced. the top five will be determined by the voting results from the March 4th - 6th voting phase.
Beginning Sunday, March 18th at 12:00am until Tuesday, march 20th at 8:59pm a second phase of voting, just like the first by phone and online, will take place.
On Saturday, March 24th, during Hockey Night In Canada, CBC will reveal the five finalists and promote their 'Live In Five'. one week later, on Saturday, March 31st, CBC will be on location in all five communities and reveal the winner of Kraft Hockeyville live during their Hockey Night In Canada broadcast!
Okay, my heart's racing just writing about it!
So, step one is for us to show the folks at Kraft and CBC that we truly ARE Hockeyville and win a spot in the top 15. We're doing a great job so far, so let's keep it up. Step two, should we be lucky enough to make the final 15, is to get EVERYBODY to the phones and online and vote on March 4th through the 6th and show the rest of Canada that West Kelowna has that winning spirit! Step 3, if we're successful enough to make it to the finals is to really pull out all the stops for the final voting phase starting March 18th through the 20th.
Our demonstration of community spirit and our passion for Hockey thus far has been nothing short of amazing! Watching people throughout our community in their Kraft Hockeyville jerseys and toques doing their part to get into the spirit has been something none of us will ever forget. But this is just the beginning. Let's keep up the great work West Kelowna. we know we love it, but it's up to us to let them know we love it and show the whole country that West Kelowna really IS Kraft Hockeyville 2012!!!
With the holiday break over, the community and the Kraft Hockeyville team here in West Kelowna has been busy organizing events and ramping up the WKHV excitement!
Plans are now in the works for West Kelowna’s first ever Mini Stick Tournament, The Wally Cup, which we hope will become an annual event for our community.
We’re also awaiting a business decorating challenge from a local business, which intends to not only challenge other West Kelowna businesses to decorate their locations and show off their Kraft Hockeyville pride, but also offer a HUGE prize reward to the business which makes the best effort to ‘go Hockeyville’! We can’t tell you who the business is yet, but it will be announced next week!
Also, over the next week or so, The Westside Warriors and West Kelowna Kraft Hockeyville will be delivering a Beachcomber hot tub to our recent Beachcomber Home Leisure Food Bank drive Hot Tub winner! We’ll be bringing you pics of the big day when it happens. Yes, in support of our efforts and to help raise donations for the Westside Food Bank, Beachcomber actually offered a fantastic hot tub as a prize. It was amazing and helped raise a lot of funds for our local Food Bank. You’ll recall our Kraft Hockeyville Family Winterfest event in December also helped raise much needed funds and donations for the Food Bank. Consider this round 2!
Other events in the works include a pond hockey event, weather permitting and a road hockey event coming later this month.
We continue to visit schools, with the support of our own Westside Warriors, helping with their reading programs and having a little fun as well!
And if you happen to be watching The Canucks on TV next week, watch for our own Hockeyville Co-Chair, Andrew Deans at Tuesday’s game. He’ll be in the crowd sporting one of our VERY popular West Kelowna Kraft Hockeyville jerseys, spreading the Hockeyville love in the big city!
There’s lots coming up, so stay tuned!