What Have You Done for Your City Lately?

The Belleville Memorial Arena located in downtown Belleville Ontario has had its problems.  The arena is the second oldest arena in the world and has developed millions of memories with thousands of people over the years.  Named the Hume Arena, Home of the Mac Farlands, and renamed the Memorial Arena in 1946, is only a small amount of the history that has come out of this building.

I have never played hockey in the Memorial Arena, or played on one of its many hockey teams, but I myself have grown up in this building.  The arena was almost like a second home to me.  My mother had held a career at the arena long before I had been born, and the job was one of my mother’s first part-time jobs as a youth.  She enjoyed the job and it became a career for her, so the staff had became like family.  My mother was a single parent and my brother and I had often had to go to work with her.  We had spent a lot of time in that arena for that reason and time passed by so fast before I knew it, I had even obtained one of my first jobs at the arena.   The staff at that arena provided me some of my longest life-time friends.

Currently, the Belleville Memorial Arena has been entered in to a competition.  You can read about the competition in an order post titled “Belleville is Kraft Hockeyville”.  I volunteered to assist the arena in the campaign to win the competition.  The arena could really use the reward to repair its floor; the floor has had problems in the past couple years and is 80+ years old.  The arena isn’t currently being used for that reason. 

Saturday March 5, 2011, I assisted with the rally to show Belleville as Kraft Hockeyville 2011, assisting with the rally was not easy.  It rained all day, which made setting up and tearing down a cold one but we had made the best of it.  I would say the day was a success overall.  We had some honourable people show up, such as the Crawford family, the respectable Memorial Arena staff, and a few local business owners in the area, along with all of the amazing volunteers & general public.

In my opinion I would to have liked see a better turn out.  The day ended up a good day of networking and fun.  There was a good amount of public that dressed in hockey attire for the costume contest, which happened during the opening ceremonies.  The day continued into the Memorial arena where the children had played some hockey with mini sticks and everyone enjoyed Kraft Food products, such as Kraft Dinner, hot dogs, and coffee.  Also available were clothing items for sale in support of the Memorial Arena, such as jerseys, t-shirts, and hats. 

To support the memorial and vote for the arena in the Kraft Hockeyville competition, voting lines open March 8 – 13.  You can call 1-866-533-8066 and follow the voice automated prompts, or you can vote at www.krafthockeyville.ca.  You can also follow the competition at BMAPS (Belleville Memorial Arena Perservation Society) blog site which I created for their members.

Video will be added here in couple days.