Grand Forks is officially entered in the Kraft Hockeyville contest.
Staff at the city received the approval by email last week and have been planning since to ensure that Grand Forks’ entry does well. The grand prize for the winning community is $100,000 in arena upgrades and an NHL pre-season hockey game. There is also $100,000 in arena upgrades for the second place community and eight third-place prizes of $25,000 each for arena upgrades.
“I just think it’s a great thing for Grand Forks if it does happen,” said Mayor Frank Konrad. “There are no guarantees that we will but we might. You never know. We could use a new roof on the arena.”
Konrad confirmed that the nomination has been accepted and people can add pictures and stories online on the Hockeyville website (KHV2016.ca). “The more people we get involved the better chance we’re going to have,” said Konrad. “Jane Pring was the first one to get the ball rolling.”
According to the Hockeyville website, all eligible entries will be evaluated by a judging panel comprised of representatives of sponsors. Judging will be based on:
1. Depiction of the nominated community’s passion for hockey and dedication to supporting the sport (30 per cent);
2. Examples of actions/events that demonstrate the nominated community’s spirit and pride (30 per cent);
3. Description of how prize money would impact the nominated community and the proposed project (25 per cent);
4. Social Media support (through Facebook and Twitter only) by way of sharing the nominated community project on the entrants personal Facebook and/or Twitter page, as determined by the competition website trackers – 5 per cent (a minimum of 250 shares accumulated together through Facebook and/or Twitter is require in order to achieve the 5 per cent); and,
5. Creativity and overall effort in entry (10 per cent).
Judging will take place between Monday, Feb. 8 and Friday, March 4 in Toronto from all of the eligible entries received on or before the competition closing date. For judging purposes, all eligible entries are separated into East and West regions of Canada.
From all eligible entries received, the judging panel will select the top five entries per region (collectively the top 10).
The top 10 will be announced on March 5 during CBC’s Saturday night hockey broadcast, as well as the website.
Once the top 10 entries have been announced, legal residents of Canada 13 years of age and older can begin voting for their favourite top 10 entry. The first voting period goes from 9 a.m. on March 13 to 11:59 p.m. on March 14. From there two finalists will be determined and there will be a second voting period from 9 a.m. on March 20 to 11:59 p.m. on March 21.
The entry receiving the most votes during the second voting period will be determined the grand prize winner.