Last Saturday’s Westlock Minor Hockey dinner-dance-auction was a big success, rivaling previous editions in terms of money raised.
Although the association has not yet completed counting the cash raised from the evening, fundraising director Kelti Nyal said it brought in a “typical” amount compared to previous years, which would be about $20,000.
Headlining the evening was Norm Shaw’s hypnotist show, an experience that brought down the house.
“Everybody loved the hypnotist,” Nyal said. “It was really good because it was clean but fun.”
What started as 20 willing and eager participants on stage eventually dwindled down to only eight. But, those eight men and women were certainly up to the task, as they fell completely under Shaw’s spell and did whatever he told them to do.
One missing participant, however, was Nyal herself.
“I’m not interested in getting up there,” she said. “I think you have to be in the right frame of mind.”
Even though she was not part of the show, she found herself involved anyway.
As Shaw wrapped up his set, he told his hypnotized subjects that they would not remember a thing, and would hound Nyal all night to complain about being ripped off because the hypnotist show never happened.
The evening is the association’s primary fundraiser, she said, so that the rest of the season can be devoted to playing hockey. “We do it because we don’t want to fundraise 100 different fundraisers through the year,” she said. “It’s our one big, main event.”
With the cost of hockey increasing every year, and more so this year with ice at the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre costing more than at Jubilee Arena, Nyal said it’s important to hold events like these to offset those costs.
The estimated crowd last weekend was about 400 people, roughly split 50-50 between minor hockey families and members of the general public.
Although it’s about a year away, Nyal has already started thinking about what next year’s fundraising gala will involve.
