Members of the Fort Frances Curling Club from International Falls are hoping to benefit from Friday’s matchup against Dryden in the “Kraft Celebration Tour.”
At stake is $25,000 that could help pay for the curling club’s geothermal heating and cooling system in the event Fort Frances wins a 24-hour online voting contest over Dryden, which is seeking the award to help pay for a regulation-sized and surfaced athletic track.
Dave Johnson, a curling club member from the Falls, said approximately 30-40 members — about 10 percent of the total membership — are from the Falls, for which Fort Frances is the closest curling facility.
Johnson said winning Friday’s contest would help “keep the cost of curling at the present level.”
The matchup between Fort Frances and Dryden is the 10th and final one on this year’s Kraft Celebration Tour, which has awarded $1 million to communities across Canada over the past four years.
The Kraft Celebration Tour’s judging panel selected 20 finalists to go head-to-head from this year's nominations seeking a $25,000 award for a community project.
The online voting between Fort Frances and Dryden begins at 11 a.m. Friday and runs for 24 hours with the community with the most votes receiving the $25,000, along with a live broadcast from TSN — the Canadian equivalent of the ESPN Sports Network — and a community barbecue next month.
The website where people from around the globe are allowed to vote more than once is located at: kraftcelebrationtour.ca/en/nominate/vote/
An effort to encourage people from the United States to vote early and often for Fort Frances has been going on at 93.1 FM in Fort Frances.
