The Lucan Community Memorial Centre is the heart of Lucan, Ontario. It’s hard to meet someone in the town who hasn’t used the facility. Unfortunately the centre is very outdated with many facilities being over 70 years old.
Now Lucan will receive $250K in arena upgrades after it was announced the winner of Kraft Hockeyville on Hockey Night in Canada. The small town of 4,500 people competed with three other finalists, High River, AB, Huntingdon QC and Lafleche, SK, who will all receive $25K in arena upgrades. More than 9 Million people voted on the winner.
Mayor Cathy Burghardt-Jesson says Lucan is the perfect fit for Kraft Hockeyville.
“I think it all came down to the community coming together for the love of hockey and community spirit, and that’s really what Kraft Hockeyville is all about. The purpose is to show Canada how much hockey means to our community, and we certainly did that.”
The local gym in Lucan was packed with hundreds of people to view the announcement during the second game of Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada. The reaction was crazy as Lucan beat the three other competing communities.
Days after the winner was announced the town is still buzzing.
“People are still talking about it, you go into Tim Horton’s, you go into the grocery store and its the topic of conversation. It won’t be forgotten anytime soon.” Says Cathy.
Lucan wasn’t alone during this competition with help from neighbouring communities like Ilderton and Exeter. Even London gave their support of the town community centre renovations.
Lucan Community Memorial Centre
Along with the money received, the town will get $10K worth of children’s hockey equipment from the Nation Hockey League Players Association and the opportunity to host an NHL preseason game. With the $250K Mayor Cathy Burghardt-Jesson has huge plans for the towns community centre.
$13 Million will be spent on arena upgrades starting this spring. The major upgrades include a brand new pool, new dressing rooms, new offices, new community event hall and even a warm viewing area.
The money won from Kraft Hockeyville has not been dedicated to anything as of yet but Cathy hopes to use it on something that will be recognized.
“The plan is that when you walk into the community centre, you will be able to see that Lucan was Kraft Hockeyville.” Burghardt-Jesson said.
Cathy and the town of Lucan are very excited for the preseason NHL game that they get to host.
“This will put us on a natural stage, Sportsnet will come into town, takeover and broadcast that, so that will be another exciting few days for us when Canada will get to see what we’re all about.”
