Barrhead shines during Kraft Celebration Tour voting

From children barely old enough to hold an iPad, to seniors learning to use a computer for the first time, Barrhead’s true community spirit shone brightly July 21 and 22.

For 48 hours last Monday and Tuesday, residents were glued to their computers, iPads, phones and laptops to vote for Barrhead in TSN’s Kraft Celebration Tour.

The club has already been awarded $25,000, however an additional $75,000 is up for grabs and will be given to the community with the most votes.

Barrhead hit the ground running after the July 1 announcement of the Barrhead Curling Club’s place in the final top 10 of the contest.

Members of the community were busy getting the word out, whether it was by word of mouth, through nearby radio stations, Alberta’s MLAs, or to Barrhead’s twinning friends in Japan and Australia.

Come the start of voting on Monday, July 21, there were about 13 voting stations set up at locations around town, including Pembina West Co-op, Freson Bros., the Barrhead Agrena, Town and County of Barrhead offices, Stephani Motors, Grizzly Trail Motors, Hillcrest, and Paddle River Golf Course.

The Barrhead Public Library went a step further and kept their doors open all night on Monday. Patty Storseth-Wierenga, who nominated Barrhead for the KCT, said they had people in there voting at 4 a.m.

“[The library] staff staying all night so people could vote was pretty amazing,” said Storseth-Wierenga.

Pembina West Co-op supplied snacks and refreshments to the Barrhead Public Library, and Freson Bros did the same for the Agrena voting station.

The locations listed above were just the official stations Storseth-Wierenga and Jenny Bruns, who helped with Barrhead’s nomination, knew about. The two organizers said they know there were more out there.

“Everybody really, once they knew what was going on, was saying, ‘we can do one!’” said Bruns. “So there are probably more we don’t know about.”

Storseth-Wierenga said Pembina Hills Regional School Division played a key role in the success of the voting stations by providing laptops to use. Dave Williams with Pembina Hills Information Technology Services helped out at the Agrena, where a large table of laptops was set up.

“Dave was the heartbeat of the voting station at the Agrena,” said Storseth-Wierenga. “He was there the whole time with a smile on his face.”

Williams was just one face of many who did their part for Barrhead.

Storseth-Wierenga said she drove into town a week before the voting started, and realized there was nothing to be seen in regards to Barrhead’s excitement towards the contest.

She contacted Little Rocks curling program coordinator Lori Bandola. Storseth-Wierenga said the Little Rock group came to the rescue.

“Our social media was going crazy, but you couldn’t actually visually see anything,” she said. “I made a call to Lori, and those kids they got out there and put up campaign signs all over town.”

Of course it wasn’t only members of the Curling Club who stepped up. Bruns said she had people telling her about the promotional poster parties they held, and the voting get-togethers after that.

“It was so good to see everybody pitch in and help,” said Bruns.

“Hats off to all those people who put the signs and posters up,” added Storseth-Wierenga.

If you’re asking who stepped up to the plate, said Storseth-Wierenga, that’s the whole community and beyond. There were businesses and organizations, sports teams and writing groups, families and friends.

“It was definitely a display of generations reaching out and helping one another, and a grounding base of what our community, our province, our country really is made up of,” she said. “We really just want to say thank you to everyone.”

Now that voting is done, the waiting begins.

The voting results won’t be released until Aug. 25 after the Kraft Celebration Tour is over. In the meantime however, organizers are working on putting together a celebration for Aug. 18.

“We have to organize and host a huge, big party, which the Curling Club, Jenny and I, and the organizing committee are so excited to do for Barrhead because they really deserve it,” said Storseth-Wierenga. “After the way they shone over those two days, we’re going to put the best party we can on for them.”

Storseth-Wierenga said there are a lot of activities and plans underway, which will be shared on the Vote For Barrhead Kraft Celebration Tour 2014 Facebook page.

Manager of Edmonton Operations for Newcap Radio and Program Director for 790 CFCW Jackie Rae Greening has already been named the celebration’s MC.

“She’s a curler, so it added a little bit of flavour to it,” said Storseth-Wierenga. “She’s really excited to work with the TSN crew on promoting our community.”

Bruns said Barrhead will welcome curling celebrity Val Sweeting as well, a Canadian curler from Vegreville, Alberta. Sweeting skipped Alberta to a silver medal at the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Then there’s TSN SportsCentre’s live broadcast featuring anchors Darren Dutchyshen and Kate Beirness.

The event is going to be like a festival, said Bruns. TSN is holding a free barbeque for 500 people, and there will be inflatables and different activities for children too.

“It should be a full blown party,” she said.

Organizers are looking for volunteers to help out at the event. Anyone interested in volunteering can call Kelly Kalmbach at 674-3291.