The celebrities have been booked, auction items procured and basic plans put in place for the wildly popular annual event.
The only question now is if it will happen.
The Banquet is tentatively scheduled to take place on Saturday, Feb. 5 at the Heritage Inn, but whether folks can gather and in what numbers will depend on discussions with the venue and how things progress with the ongoing pandemic.
“Our plan right now is that we’ll be going ahead with the Sports Banquet this year, but that can change,” said chairman Scott Paquin. “We don’t really know what might be happening with government requirements and things like that over the next few weeks, but as of today, we’re holding it.”
The Kinsmen have a meeting scheduled with the Heritage Inn during the first week of January that will include the local business’ liaison with the Saskatchewan Health Authority. What direction the event takes will largely hinge on decisions made in that discussion, ranging from capacity limits to other restrictions and precautions that might be needed.
And, of course, if the whole thing can take place at all.
“The tough thing is we’ve put a few things in place and you don’t want to go too far with it because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Paquin said. “With everything else, and lots of stuff happening in Canada through Christmas and with sports and everything, we’ll see. It’s all wait and see, unfortunately.”
The good thing is if it all comes together, supporters of the charity fundraiser will be in for quite the show, just with the crew of characters who will be on hand.
The Kinsmen have lined up former NHL standouts Shane Corson and Darcy Tucker along with Blue Jays reliever Jordan Romano and former NFL kicker Mike Vanderjagt as their celebrities for 2022.
“They all have great personalities, so it’ll be a lot of fun to see them all,” Paquin said, adding that putting together the line-up took some finagling. “It was kind of process this year, we had a few different guys we called on who were excited to do it but different things came up, just being an Olympic year and things like that.
“But we do have a lot of guys lined up for subsequent years, which is great. We’ve filled some slots for the years going forward, guys were telling us they’re excited about doing it and they’ve heard about it, so we’re excited to hear the same.”
Everything else about the date -- including ticket sales -- remains up in the air until the upcoming meeting.
One thing that’s certain is should it take place, the Banquet will bring a welcome injection of funds into the Kinsmen’s charity coffers after being cancelled in 2021.
“It’s been a tough couple of years, not having the ability to run it,” Paquin said. “We do generate some income out of it, it’s one of our biggest fundraising events, so I’m looking forward to getting back to it.”
Be sure to keep an eye on the Kinsmen Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mjkinsmen for the latest updates on the event.
