SUNDRE – Accommodations for the many dozens of visiting players participating in the recent Sundre U9 Huskies’ home tournament fundraiser along with their families were booked both in town as well as in Olds.
The Huskies Howl U9 tournament, which took place on Jan. 20-21, had a total of 98 players from eight teams, including the two local U9 teams.
“It went really well,” said Kim Pettie, who co-organized the event alongside Kirsti Bennett and Jamie Lotoski.
The hosts had two squads, Huskies Black as well as Huskies White, with the Blackfalds Bulldogs, Cochrane Rumble Bees, New Sarepta Eagles, Sylvan Lake Lakers, and two Calgary-based teams called the Wolverines filling out the rest of the weekend’s roster.
Every team had the chance to play three games, and since the atmosphere is focused more on team-building and having fun than competition and keeping score, rankings were not tracked or recorded. But there was a special surprise candied trophy that the kids could savour in more ways than one.
“It’s basically in the shape of a trophy, but then you have chocolate and candy all around it and then a silver bowl on top,” she said. “The kids loved that.”
And every player also got a medal as well as some swag bags loaded with coupons to several local eateries, she said.
“It brings lots of money into the town,” she said about the tournament.
Although organizers hadn’t yet had a chance to estimate how much was raised when Pettie spoke with the Albertan, she said the raffle tables had plenty of items donated by local businesses, including a skate sharpener that proved popular.
“We really appreciate that because the money that is made kind of goes back into our teams,” she said, citing as an example player development programs.
Overall, she added the hosts received positive responses from all of the visitors.
“We got really good feedback,” she said.
And the beneficial economic ripple effects of hosting the event reached beyond Sundre. While some teams stayed in town, there were others who booked their accommodations in Olds, she said.
“We were really happy with how it turned out,” she said, also expressing gratitude for all of the help from parents who volunteered to pitch in “to make it run smoothly.”
