Enderby Fire Department members show support for the city's Hockeyville nomination by wearing their jerseys at a fire practice. (Photo credit: Facebook/Enderby and District Recreation Services)

By Pete McIntyre

Support from region

Enderby making strong push for Hockeyville nomination

Feb 16, 2024 | 5:00 AM

In hockey lingo, it’s getting late in the third period and Enderby is pulling out all the stops to bring home a victory.

The North Okanagan city of about 3,000 residents has been nominated for Kraft Hockeyville 2024 as it looks to win the top prize of $250,000 to repair its currently-closed arena.

The City of Enderby announced its arena and curling rink would shut down for the rest of the season on Jan. 4, 2024, after discovering a problem with the refrigeration system.

Enderby arena (photo credit: City of Enderby)

Until Sunday, Feb. 18, the city — and other interested communities across Canada — are in the “Nominate & Rally” phase of the annual competition where supporters can help the community score points to be selected as one of the top four finalists, which will be announced on March 9.

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The winning community also gets to host an NHL pre-season game, while the three runners-up each get $25,000 for arena upgrades.

(image credit: Kraft Hockeyville)

The village of Lumby won $100,000 to upgrade the Pat Duke Memorial Arena after being named Kraft Hockeyville in 2016.

Kaylee Wells from Enderby’s organizing group, said from what they can tell from the Hockeyville website, they are one of the leaders in the number of nominations.

“In the past week we have received 168 nominations along with multiple picture and note submissions,” Wells told Vernon Matters. “We are also promoting people to login and engage with other people’s nominations and pictures, every like on a post gets us points. We have a how-to video posted on our Facebook Page for anyone having difficulties submitting their nomination stories.”

Wells said Enderby has been extremely supportive in the push for Kraft Hockeyville, which she believes is mostly due to the number of people missing having an operational arena.

“On Friday, Feb. 9th we had Jersey Day in Enderby with hundreds of people wearing their hockey jerseys. Local businesses, schools, the fire department and community organizations supported the event. Parent volunteers at MV Beattie Elementary School even organized Kraft Dinner lunch for all of the students,” Wells said.

Wells said If people continue engaging in the contest, we feel like they might just be announced as one of the top four on March 9.

“Enderby and District Financial have been assisting people entering their nominations. The activity on social media promoting the contest has been a huge asset. Not only have we had support within the City of Enderby, we have had support from all of our neighboring communities, previous residents, and local media.”

How can you support the Enderby Arena?

Register on the Kraft Hockeyville website and take the following actions to earn rally points for Enderby!

• Submit a written or video essay nomination story: 10 points
• Add supporting photos of your arena: 3 points
• Add a supporting note for your arena: 1 point
• React with emojis to nominated stories and photos: 1 point

Click here for more information.