Nova Scotia town withdraws from Hockeyville contest to support rival town’s bid after their arena burns to the ground

If you’re not familiar with the Kraft Hockeyville contest, it’s a competition sponsored by Kraft Heinz and the NHL where Canadian communities compete to demonstrate their commitment to the sport of hockey. The winning community receives a cash prize of $250,000 to use toward much needed arena upgrades in their community. Additionally, the NHL will award a pre-season game in the town.

It’s a cool contest that has generated a lot of goodwill across the nation, but this story truly takes the cake.

After residents in Sackville, Nova Scotia became aware that the community of Tyne Valley, PEI lost their community rink to a fire on December 28th, 2019, they pulled their bid and put their full support behind Tyne Valley.

“I was thinking about how they don’t even have a rink now,” he Sackville Flyers hockey dad Jamie Munroe. “We have two rinks in Lower Sackville. Yes, they need upgrades, but our kids can still play there.”

Munroe, who works at a sporting goods store in Lower Sackville, said he was at a tournament in PEI last weekend with his nine-year-old son Cooper when a man at the rink told him about the fire in Tyne Valley.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the burned out Tyne Valley arena to show their support for a new building and a Hockeyville bid. Munroe was so moved that he pulled Sackville’s bid almost immediately.

“You can see their rink behind them,” he said in a Facebook post. “They have nominated themselves to become Hockeyville, too. I know a lot of you have been doing a lot to help Sackville become Hockeyville, but … I think the Sackville community should band together with them and help them fix their rink!”

“We’re going to do everything we can to help Tyne Valley get a new rink,” he said.

How can you not love that? This is what hockey is all about. 

This story was originally reported by CBC. For more info, check out the CBC report by clicking the link below: