Massive fundraising Sportsman’s Weekend coming up
March 13, 2018, 1:42 am
Kevin Weedmark
A massive fundraising weekend is coming up with the Pipestone Hills Rod Pederson Sportsman’s Weekend April 27 and 28.
The weekend is a fundraiser for the new Pipestone Hills Golf Club clubhouse, and is two days crammed with events, from a live broadcast of Rod Pederson’s Sportscage from the PotashCorp Sportsplex on the Friday night, to a banquet and question and answer session with a raft of celebrities on Saturday night.
“Rod Pederson is going to be the host, and Rod does an excellent job of things like this, and that takes a lot of pressure off anybody on the organizing committee,” says Pat McDonald, one of the organizers. “Basically we let him run his show.”
Lots of celebrities
There will be lots of sports celebrities coming for the event, including members of every Grey Cup winning Rider Team. “We have lots of Riders coming. Cleveland Vann, Shomari Williams, Dale West (1966 Grey cup champ), Rob Bresciani (1989 Grey Cup champ), Luc Mullinder (2007 Grey Cup champ), Duron Carter and Chris Getzlaf are all Riders, and they represent the years the Riders won the Grey Cup,” says McDonald. “Duron Carter is our current Rider for this year—the 2018 champions,” he adds with a smile. “Taylor Shire out of Rocanville, the Global TV Regina anchor, will be coming. He is married to Christine Shire, the CTV Regina anchor, she is coming out. (Both Taylor and Christine started their careers at the World-Spectator). Many other sports celebrities are coming including former NHLer Jeff Odgers, pro hockey player Bud Holloway from Wapella, Jamie Hodson of the Virden Oilcaps, Tanner McColl, GM of the Weyburn Red Wings, Mike Davis, director of football operations for the Roughriders, Olympic figure skating coach Patti Hole, and many more—19 sports celebrities in total.
Packed schedule
There is a lot going on over the two days.
“The Sportscage will be out here and that is really the kickoff to it,” says McDonald. “The show runs from 4-6:30 pm. A lot of the celebrities have committed to coming out on the Friday night as well. Some will pop on and off of the show and be plugging the weekend events.
“That night will also be the windup of the corporate golf league at the Sportsplex. The wind up is pushed back until later because during the show we will be having a game of golf which is called the horse race. You’re playing for either the table at the event or your celebrity. We will have a map set up with that table having assigned celebrities, kind of like a playoff system. It will be a quick game with the eventual winner who can pick the celebrity or table.
“It will be a great night for people to come out and mingle with these guys. It’s such an intimate area in the Sportsplex. It will be a great chance to meet everyone.
“After that we will have the wind-up for all the people who have golfed through the year at the corporate nights and there will be a trophy presentation.”
The Parks and Rec awards will also be presented on Friday night, and there will be a supper, and glow bowling for kids.
The itinerary continues with a full schedule on Saturday.
“On Saturday we will kick-off the day with a barbecue lunch on the Tim Hortons Deck. We hope we will get some good weather by the end of April, but that will be dependent on the weather. The celebrities will be there again to mix and mingle and everybody is welcome. That will run from 11:30 am to 1:30 p.m. Then there will be a Hawaii Scramble golf tournament in the afternoon.”
Saturday evening includes a mixer for sponsors and sportsmen at the Blue Moose Lounge, a happy hour, silent auction, banquet, question and answer bearpit session with the celebrities, and live auction.
McDonald says the bear pit session should be a highlight.
“We will take all of the celebrities, they will sit up on the stage and that’s when Rod takes over and he will ask questions. He will know something about everyone of these guys. So the questions will flow and we will get everybody involved in them.”
“Some of the questions from the crowd can come up at that time, if you have a question for your favorite celebrity, you can get up and ask it,” adds organizer Ferrel Horn.
Auction items
There are a lot of unique items on auction at the fundraiser. There are both silent and live auctions planned.
There will be a lot of sports memorabilia and autographed jerseys, of course, but there will be two very unique items in the auction—two custom golf carts that are being customized right now.
One will be a Riders themed golf cart, and organizers are coming up with a lot of ideas to customize it.
“We’ve got a lot of signed jerseys—a lot of really nice stuff to auction off,” says McDonald.
“We’ve got some Montreal stuff, and we’re hoping we have jerseys for most of the celebrities,” adds Horn. “Those are going to be significant because even the Rider guys alone from ‘66 all the way up, for all the Grey Cup champion teams, the players will have their jerseys, and the chance to autograph them for the people, who buy their Jerseys. Jeff Odgers and Bud Holloway also will both have their stuff there, so they can tell the story behind them and then auction them off.”
There will be a lot of Montreal Canadiens jerseys, a Regina Pats jersey, a Team Canada jersey, a Winnipeg Jets jersey, a panoramic picture of the last game ever played at Taylor Field, and a lot more.
“It should be great,” says McDonald. “Having all the celebrities right there—whoever buys Chris Getzlaff’s jersey can have him sign it right there.”
Good support
Five members of the golf course fundraising committee have been working on bringing everything together for the big weekend, with a lot of help from Rec Director Mike Schwean.
“There’s a lot of stuff to do to get ready for something like this, but once the ball starts rolling, everybody has got their ideas. It’s good—five heads are better than two,” says Horn.
“Everybody is reaching out to their sources, getting auction items, and doing whatever we can do, and I think it’s coming together great,” adds McDonald.
“The support is great so far. The platinum tables are $1,000 and we are close to 20 confirmed. We’ve sold 14 and we’re just waiting to hear from a few others, but we’re thinking there are 20 tables so far, and if we had 50 we’d be pretty happy. We’re really hoping to draw from some of the other communities, when you have Bud out of Wapella and Jeff coming out of Rocanville.
Right timing
Ferrel Horn says the idea of a Sports Celebrity dinner has been discussed in the past, and with fundraising needed for the new clubhouse, this seemed like a good time to organize the fundraiser.
“We’ve talked about it for a couple of years, just something like this, and all of a sudden the opportunity was right. The golf course building is up and people can see how the work is going and people are getting excited about it.
“This is a chance for people to get involved and help raise money for the clubhouse, and have a lot of fun.
“There is something there for everyone on the weekend, including for the kids.”
$400,000 project
Ferrel Horn says the new clubhouse project is going well. “We’re hoping to finish the building by the end of July,” he said. “It’s gone well so far.”
“A lot of people are driving down Number 8 and saying ‘wow, that sure is coming along,’ ” adds McDonald. “There’s a lot of work to do on the inside, but people are impressed with how it has come along.
“Our total budget was $400,000 and we have some vendors and contractors who have donated back anywhere from 10-40 per cent, or have said if we buy the material they will give us the labor for free, which really helps.”
Tickets going well
Tickets are going well so far, with many platinum sponsorships sold. (Platinum sponsors get a table with one of the celebrities for the supper, and can attend a mixer with the celebrities).
Platinum sponsorships are $1,000 for a table, gold sponsorships are $750 for a table, a regular table of six is $480 and individual tickets are $80 each.
Tickets can be reserved by calling Mike Schwean at 306-435-3622 or emailing msmn.rec.brd@sasktel.net
