ESTEVAN - The organizing committee for the 2022 Centennial Cup national junior A hockey championship, presented by Tim Hortons, is looking for volunteers for the event.
A come-and-go information event was held on April 12 at Affinity Place. Cory Prokop, who is one of the co-chairs for the event committee, said they filled about 30 per cent of the slots, which they viewed as a good response.
“We’d like to get that filled as soon as possible so that we’re confident everything’s taken care of heading into the tournament,” said Prokop. “I think there are a few spots here and there that will need to be filled closer to the actual games starting up.”
Pam Dechief is the volunteer committee chair. They will have 715 volunteer shifts to be filled over the course of 11 days, Prokop said, but people often take more than one shift.
It’s believed that 175-200 volunteers will be needed.
“A handful of individuals might take 10 or 20 spots, be working all week and love doing that kind of thing,” Prokop said. “We’re lucky we live in a community where we have the volunteer base that we do.”
The committee is looking for people to take at least five volunteer shifts, but they wouldn’t reject someone who wants just one or two.
Volunteers can handle such duties as ticket sellers in the box office, ticket takers, security, ushers and 50-50 ticket sellers. They also need people to supervise hospitality rooms for scouts, media, Hockey Canada personnel and league officials.
Security might be the toughest job to fill, he said, but they won’t be forcing people to enter a fray or break up fights. If something does get out of hand, police can be brought in.
“We’ll have game-day officials running the penalty box and the time keeping, along with goal judges,” said Prokop. “That’s a bit separate from this job. This application won’t include those. We have specific individuals looking after filling those spots, because they are a little more specific.”
The game-day officials will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Prokop said, because they are interacting with players.
Each team will be assigned a liaison for the tournament who will have to be fully vaccinated and have a criminal record check.
Expanding to a 10-team tournament from five, and 25 games from 13, means they needed more volunteers and more shifts to be filled.
The toughest challenge might be trying to fill the games that start at noon. Prokop suggested it might be ideal for those who are retired, or people who have jobs that require shift work and would be home during the day. .
“I’m sure that the games when the Estevan Bruins are playing – the evening games on those four nights during the round robin portion of the tournament – will be attractive games for people. That opens up the pool to everyone.”
Volunteers will receive t-shirts and other memorabilia for helping out. They will also receive a complimentary ticket to attend a non-Bruins game during the round robin for each shift worked.
“We’ll be looking for a sponsor to take on a bit of a volunteer appreciation night after the tournament has been completed, to thank everyone that comes out and helps us out during the 11 days,” said Prokop.
