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Ice device waiting to take the plunge Thandiwe Vela Northern News Services Published Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The bright red, 205-litre drum was placed on skis on the lake, at Somba K'e Civic Plaza by Rotary Club of Yellowknife True North members on April 21, at the launch of the club's first Ice Melt contest. "I'm looking at it now. It's kind of boring," said Van Tighem, peering out his office window at the large drum with the yellow Rotary wheel flag attached on Monday afternoon. "It just sits there and every once in a while, the flag waves." Since the launch day, Yellowknifers have been buying guesses as to when the device will fall through the ice, in the hopes of securing top monetary prizes for the closest guesses to the exact month, day, hour, minute, and second that the device falls into the water. Guesses are being accepted until the barrel falls into the water, so when exactly the contest will be over, is not yet known, said Rotary club secretary Jeromy Ball. "I guess (the contest is over) when Mother Nature tells us our contest is over," Ball said. As of Monday, a puddle had started collecting around the 250-pound water-filled barrel, and it was tipping slightly. "It's definitely starting to sag in a little bit," Ball said Monday afternoon. "It's probably about a foot into the ice right now, so it's starting to go in." Ball, who is not guessing because his name is on the contest's lottery licence, said based on previous records of when Frame Lake thawed, the club is "pretty confident she's gonna be in the water before June 1st. " "From all the data we have the thing's going to fall in before June 1st," he said. About 80 per cent of the approximately 2,000 guesses sold and registered so far, have guesses within the second and third week of May, Ball said. Van Tighem has been recording guesses that range anywhere from May 6 to June 7, and he said it's tricky to pinpoint the time the device will fall through based on past ice melt dates. "You can tell when the ice goes out but you can't tell what the device is going to do because it's very heavy, and it's a dark colour so it might melt through before the ice goes out," Van Tighem said. As of Monday, there were 1,000 guesses still left to be sold. The idea of an ice melt contest is not new, Van Tighem said, recalling clubs in Yellowknife having done similar contests in the past, and other communities that have put on ice melt contests as well. The Rotary Club got the idea from the Rotary Club of Dillon, Colorado, whose 2012 ice melt contest ended April 11, at 6:09:30 p.m. The first prize winner there was five minutes and 40 seconds off. In addition to a small timer, which will stop the second the Frame Lake device falls through the water, a Global Storm IT webcam is also monitoring the device. Van Tighem, a Rotarian, is glad the inaugural Ice Melt contest has gone well so far. "Everything that's raised is going to a good cause and several of the projects are local, so that's also good," he said. Funds raised from the contest will go toward the Rotary Club's international and local projects, including its Back Bay Cemetery clean-up project. The True North Rotary Club will be selling ice melt tickets at its booth this weekend at the Spring Trade Show.
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