The World Junior A Challenge committee announced it will be offering tickets to those less fortunate this December.
From Dec. 11-17 the tournament will be running at the RJ Lalonde Arena in Bonnyville. For those who have purchased full tournament tickets and may not be able to attend all games, those tickets won't go to waste.
“Even if you're going to miss a game or two it's still best to buy the full event packages, and you'll end up saving a bit of money that way. Now instead of having tickets going to waste or you trying to scramble to find a way to sell tickets or get rid of them, we've come up with this ticket donation program,” said Robb Hunter, chair for the World Junior A Challenge Committee.
The tickets will be donated to the Bonnylodge, Extendicare, and the Bonnyville Food Bank. They are asking people to not take them directly to the Bonnylodge, food bank or Extendicare. Take any tickets you can't use to the Centennial Centre.
“What will actually happen is once you receive your ticket package, you'll have the actual tickets, and we will encourage you to come by the Centennial Centre, there will be drop box locations at the C2,” said Hunter.
The organizations in town are excited to be able to capitalize on this program.
“We've got a few residents that really enjoy the game and we're excited to have the World Junior A tournament come to our community. It's a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity and they're excited to be able to participate,” explained Kim Mercier, administrator with Extendicare in Bonnyville. “We're hoping that we can intrigue a few to participate.”
“I think this is fantastic, we have many seniors who do go to the games and others who would love to go to the games but sometimes pricing of tickets can be an issue for them. I think this is wonderful,” added Dallas Lebedynski, manager of the Bonnylodge. “It helps get the seniors out and that is fabulous as well.”
This is an initiative that Hunter says he has seen done before by Hockey Canada and he felt this would be a great idea to bring to the people of Bonnyville.
“It's close to Christmas, it's a giving time of year and we're excited for the tournament to be here and we want to include as many people as possible. That includes people who might not be able to afford to go to games,” added Hunter. “We want to find a way to involve them in the event and get them to come to the games this is a great way to do it and we think people will feel good about giving and we thank that for families that are going through times with the state of the economy they all of sudden right before Christmas will be able to bring home some tickets and take their kids out to an international hockey event.”
