If the Town of Davidson can garner enough support on its Kraft Celebration Tour nomination page, the new Davidson Swimming Pool would be a lot closer to realization.
“The support that we’ve got already is great,” said Trevor Ouellette, recreation director for the Town of Davidson. “I emailed out a link to the nomination page and people have gotten back. The enthusiasm of the fundraising committee and the town supporting (them) has spilt over and we need more of it. This doesn’t cost anything. This is just support.”
The fifth annual Kraft Celebration Tour hits the road every summer to 10 communities across the country for a celebration of its spirit, passion for sports and dedication to a healthy and active lifestyle. These 10 are each awarded $25,000 for a community project and a live broadcast of TSN’s SportsCentre from their community during their stop on the tour.
Ouellette said Watrous won $25,000 from the Kraft Celebration Tour in 2009 for renovations to their arena. He said at that time there was only around 85 nominations in total, so for Davidson to win this year they need all the support they can get.
“What they weigh is the community support behind (the project),” he said. “If there is one project that has three people supporting it there is very little chance, but if there is lots of support (and) lots of comments on that particular nomination page that weighs a little bit more for the producers of the show.”
The 10 winning communities are chosen from a shortlist of 20 finalists announced on TSN June 30. Between July 8 and July 20, two finalists would be pitted against each other in series of 10 daily match-ups, with the amount of votes cast each day determining the 10 winners. The Kraft Celebration Tour then rolls out to the 10 winning communities starting Aug. 16 with the $25,000 awards and the TSN SportsCentre broadcast crew.
“Competition is pretty intense, so the more people we can get to like our page and leave comments about what the $25,000 would mean the better,” said Ouellette. “For the town, this is a great thing to do. I’ve been through it once with Watrous and it was a whirlwind event. It goes by just like that, but it’s a big deal.”