WESTLOCK – The Westlock Rotary Club has a new event on tap for 2023 that will not only showcase the community’s love of hockey and allow alumni to “to relive their glory days” on the ice, but raise much-needed funds for continued upgrades to the 10.2-kilometre Rotary Trail.
The first-ever, 16-game Home Time Hockey Tournament is slated to run March 17-19 at the Rotary Spirit Centre (RSC) and is open to all men and women, over the age of 25 as of Jan. 1, 2023, who have “lived, worked or played hockey” in Westlock. Registration costs $175 per person and includes their ice time, a jersey and a ticket to the dinner/cabaret on Saturday night — players will be drafted to eight teams which will be as “equal and fair as possible.”
Rotary club co-president Todd Ducharme said the idea for the event sprung from his hometown of Fort MacLeod which has hosted a similar tourney for years.
“It’s such a great way to bring people back to the community and also have some fun and raise some funds. I want people to understand that this is meant to be a fun event and more of a homecoming or a reunion,” said Ducharme. “We always go to the same people year after year looking for donations, so this is a way of bringing people back to the community who may not still live here. We get them coming home to visit their friends and family, but also to spend some money and help the Rotary Trail. It’s good exposure for Westlock, the Rotary Spirit Centre and the club itself.”
With the demise of the Rotary Dinner Theatre held annually every fall, Ducharme said they needed some new events to help fund the group’s commitment to community service and he’s hoping the Home Time Hockey Tournament can generate somewhere in the neighbourhood of $30,000 after all the receipts are counted.
“Dinner theatre in many ways ran its course and the people who were involved changed and we just couldn’t get that same level of commitment … I mean we had nine shows in a month and it was a lot of work for a lot of people,” said Ducharme. “We hope this can replace it and help us as a club to re-connect to the community. With our golf tournament, the Mother’s Day Run, our trip of the month tickets and now this, we think we’re making good inroads.”
To register or volunteer for the event, visit www.tinyurl.com\hometownhockey or e-mail Brady Ducharme with questions.
“Our committee is made up of people from across the community — my two boys, Colby and Brady, are involved, as well as Vance Nakonechny, Perry Kulmatyski and Ricky Dutchak … guys who have been big in the community as well as in the local hockey world but haven’t been in Rotary, so it’s been really good and we’re all looking forward to it,” added Ducharme.
