Kingsville is Hockeyville

Ok not officially yet, but Kingsville is one of the top ten finalists for CBC's Kraft Hockeyville 2008. (ok so I linked you right to the Kingsville Arena's page so you can vote directly- and go ahead, check out the video that was shown on CBC, and read some of the over 150 stories that my fellow Kingsville-ites shared!- did I mention we have a facebook group of over 1200 people too?) Come on peeps, this is my hometown- if you love me, you'll take the time to click on the link and vote. My town is the greatest town of them all- Canada's most southern town (not joking), it is on the north shore of Lake Erie, on the same paralell as northern California, home to Pelee Island Winery and the birthplace of yours truly.

While my family wasn't a hockey family, we did spend a lot of time at the arena. The baseball diamonds we played at all summer long are part of the arena complex. And throughout the winter months, every Sunday at 2pm we brought our skates, got them sharpened and headed off to the rink Public skating. Plans were always made after Church let out, when the inevitable question was always asked: "are you going skating today" the 2pm public skate was the happening place to be! And seeing as it was a 3 minute drive from my house (not much was more than 3 minutes from the house come to think of it), public skating was awesome- nothing like skating around in circles for an hour and a half.

While typing this post, I was able to catch the hockeyville special on CBC thanks to time-shift. On todays show, the top ten towns were announced selected from over 1100 entries submitted nationally. I waited until the last five minutes to see Kingsville- it was the last town profiled... which mom is convinced means it was the judges top pick and that they saved the best for last. And I tell ya, after just being there this weekend for a wedding shower, and now sitting in the 'Saug, I've got goose-bumps and chills with a tear in my eye. Our mayor spoke very well, and mentioned how he met his wife at the arena as he would cover the Kingsville Comets games as a reporter for our beloved town newspaper the Kingsville Reporter (affectionally referred to as the "Ripsnorter"), and how his now wife sang the national anthems at every game as she still does to this day.

Kingsville is a great town- we have the spirit of a wonderful, close-knit community; the town I know that I can always go home to.

Come on bloggy-peeps, my home-town needs ya! Vote for us! Kingsville IS Hockeyville!