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Saved by flying pelicans Organizing committee chair Pam Walsh says TSN visit to Fort Smith was amazing
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 26, 2013
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Pam Walsh helped put Fort Smith in the national spotlight this summer, but the live broadcast almost didn't happen due to inclement weather.
Pam Walsh holds a symbolic cheque for the $25,000 that Fort Smith won in the Kraft Celebration Tour. Walsh nominated the community for the national contest and chaired the organizing committee for the resulting live broadcast in Fort Smith by TSN's SportsCentre. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
Her letter - outlining the need for help as a result of a fire earlier this year at Fort Smith Centennial Arena - earned the community a spot as a finalist in the Kraft Celebration Tour. After a day of online voting, the community won $25,000 and the privilege of hosting a live broadcast of TSN's SportsCentre on Aug. 16.
"It was amazing," said Walsh, who chaired the community's organizing committee for the TSN visit. "It's hard to believe that it's over now because the anticipation of it was so amazing up until that point, and then you kind of blink and it's over."
She is also thankful the Aug. 16 live broadcast happened at all. On that day, everything was set up by 2 p.m., two hours in advance of the live show, she said.
"And all of a sudden, the skies opened up and we started having torrential rain."
Walsh said, for a while, it looked like the show wouldn't go ahead as planned.
"I tell you, at two o'clock, I was in despair," she said. "I thought we weren't going
to be able to do it."
It was so bad that the SportsCentre anchors - Jennifer Hedger and Darren Dutchyshen - were heading to the rec centre to record a video clip to explain the live show from Fort Smith had been rained out.
If that had happened, the show would have originated from Toronto, although it would still have featured pre-recorded segments about Fort Smith.
However, a member of the organizing committee, who was driving the anchors to the rec centre, looked up in the air and saw five pelicans flying, and told the TSN crew that was a sign there was no lightning in the area.
"And they turned around and decided they would try it," Walsh said.
The live broadcast was that close to being cancelled, she said.
"So it was unbelievable that everything turned out."
It rained for about half an hour and by show time at 4 p.m., the sun was out.
Walsh and the other dozen members of the organizing committee had been working on the TSN visit since Fort Smith won the Kraft Celebration Tour on July 9.
Walsh, 51, who is originally from Nova Scotia and has lived in Fort Smith for 20 years, is pleased with the community's portrayal on the TSN show, adding it highlighted the Slave River and its rapids, whitewater paddling, Wood Buffalo National Park, aboriginal culture and community volunteerism.
"I think they did a really excellent job in portraying just what Fort Smith is all about," she said.
Walsh is not sure what impact winning the Kraft Celebration Tour,
the visit by TSN and the subsequent national exposure, will have on Fort Smith in terms of
possibly attracting more tourists.
"I think more importantly, the kind of impact that this has had on our community is just in terms of feeling connected and feeling like everyone has pulled together and
everybody had a common goal, and they worked toward it," she said.
Now that the Kraft Celebration Tour and the TSN visit are in the past, Walsh is looking at forming a society to continue fundraising efforts in other ways.
The other fundraising, which has already started, includes a raffle for a stained glass snowshoe and a quilt, donations from individuals and businesses and the sale of T-shirts at the town office.
The T-shirts, featuring the slogan Little Town, Big Heart, highlights the 253,022 votes the community received in the online voting war against Whitehorse. The Yukon capital city garnered a mere 35,566 votes.
Walsh estimates the combined efforts have so far raised between $40,000 and $45,000, including the $25,000 prize in the Kraft Celebration Tour. The money will help obtain portable dressing room units, which cost up to $300,000.
Walsh, who works as regional literacy co-ordinator with the South Slave Divisional Education Council, said preparing for the TSN visit meant weekly meetings of the organizing committee and working nonstop to co-ordinate the details of the event, which saw at least 50 people come to town from Kraft and TSN.
The visit by TSN was more than she expected.
"It was unbelievable."
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