At the beginning of the year, the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Celebrity Sports Dinner looked like it was going to go through a bit of a wringer when it came to getting things worked out around the ongoing pandemic.
A date change, celebrity line-up change and the continuous unknowns surrounding the situation with regards to public gatherings kept many things in the air longer than the local service organization would have liked.
But in the end, the Celebrity Sports Dinner is always one of the hottest tickets in the city. And even with all the alterations that had to be made in order to pull things off, Moose Jaw did its part.
More than 500 people packed the Heritage Inn ballroom on Saturday night for the 29th edition of the Dinner, giving the Kinsmen a complete sellout and once again doing their part to support their many, many charitable ventures.
Patrons were treated to an entertaining night of laughs and stories from master of ceremonies Rod Black alongside the table of special guests in former NFL kicker Mike Vanderjagt, NHL stars Shayne Corson and Darcy Tucker and Toronto Blue Jays closer Duane Ward.
Blue Jays reliever Jordan Romero was to originally attend the event, but because the date had been moved from the traditional first week in February to April, his spring training duties with Toronto got in the way.
All in all, a great night, and one chairman Scott Paquin was relieved to see go off without a hitch.
“We couldn’t be happier,” Paquin said on Sunday afternoon. “We thought it was a great event, we were super excited that everyone had a great time and we were really pumped by all the support we received from everybody last night and all the kind words. We thought it was awesome.”
The traditional trio of special awards were also presented on the night, with the Kinsmen Sports Achievement Award being presented to Canadian Olympic speedskater Graeme Fish, the Moose Jaw Express Sports Builder Award going posthumously to longtime Warriors supporter Bob Calvert and the Golden West Radio Team of the Year Award presented to the provincial champion Peacock Toilers girls volleyball team.
Then there were the major fundraisers on the night, the live and silent auctions.
While Paquin didn’t have totals immediately available, it’s safe to say if the Kinsmen coffers were a bit depleted heading into the night, they most certainly aren’t any longer.
“We’re still just tallying things up and getting that all buttoned up, but we’re really excited with how they did… I think we’ve probably done a little better than other years and we’re really happy about that,” he said.
The hat auction for a sports trip to anywhere of the winner’s choice ended up bringing in thousands upon thousands of dollars for the organization, as did the huge signed prints and handcrafted Hockey Night in Canada wooden signs.
As for big-ticket silent auction items, one of the more unique selections was a signed Mike Tyson’s Punchout screenshot that included a Nintendo controller, drawing bids that eventually hit the $1,300 range.
“That went better than we thought it would and we had a lot of great feedback on it, it was a really cool limited edition print so that worked out amazingly well,” Paquin said. “So we were really happy with how all the auctions did, it was definitely a good night.”
All told, all proceeds from the Celebrity Dinner will go right back into the community and support the dozens of organizations the Kinsmen sponsor and assist on an annual basis.
“That’s really what it’s all about, our ability to give back to the community,” Paquin said. “The community came together last night and really support us and it’ll allow us to do more and more for Moose Jaw.”
