Photo of Pete Knight Memorial Arena in Crossfield, Alberta / Photo taken by William L. Baliko
The town of Crossfield, Alberta, is just a 30-minute drive north from Calgary and is hoping to have its town’s hockey dreams come true this April.
For many small towns in Alberta, hockey is one of the ways people come together during the winter, and in a town of approximately four thousand people, it is a pillar of the community.
Every year for the past eighteen years, Kraft Hockeyville seeks community spirit who breathes and bleeds hockey through a contest where the winner receives $250,000 dollars towards their local rink and a chance to host a pre-season NHL game.
President of the Crossfield Skating Club, Jenifer Watson, explains how their arena is a community hub while also being one of the ways it keeps together the town’s next generation.
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While the contest has towns across Canada competing for a chance to become the next Hockeyville, it has been nine years since a western province has won, with Lumby, BC, being chosen back in 2016 and the last Alberta town being Silvian Lake back in 2014.
The Pete Knight Memorial Arena in Crossfield was opened back in 1977 and has a rich history as a community gathering place for sports and community activities; however, its age is beginning to how as the needs of the community evolve.
Watson shares the improvements that would be made to the arena if they won the award, which would be focused on accessibility.
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Voting for Kraft Hockey Ville Canada opens on April 4 at 9 a.m. ET (7 a.m. MST).
Voting for the town Crossfield can be done through Kraft Hockeyville’s website.
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