Lanny McDonald is proof that a real champion is more than an exceptional athlete.
The Rotary Club brought the NHL star to town for a Sportsman’s Celebrity Dinner on Sept. 26 at the Sawridge Banquet room and took advantage of his giving nature!
He was whisked all over town, and his trademark walrus mustache rode atop a giant smile the whole time.
After the Rotary club auctioned off some of his personal memorabilia, Lanny got on stage and wowed the crowd with classic NHL memories.
Lanny’s exemplary life, from the junior leagues through great NHL teams and on to successful business man made for great story telling and he had the crowd hanging on every word.
Funny, smart and charming fairly describe the man whose stature and famous mustache are as large as his presence is in NHL history. Not to mention, he’s an Alberta boy!
Out of the league for some years now, but with stick still firmly on the ice (Lanny still plays for old-timers charity teams) McDonald still has star power.
The Rotary club pulled off a great coup by bringing the well-rounded champ to town and judging by the numbers the auctioneers were commanding, the library will no doubt be a fair bit closer to completion. Hockey pucks were going for $1,000; jerseys for over $3,000.
Harry Bartlett of the Rotary Club said,
“It was hugely successful! We think we made nearly $40,000, which surpassed predictions. We had a ton of volunteers to help out.
Clarence Malbeuf won the game jersey and hall of fame stick at the game on Thursday,” His son Clarence was tending goal, Bartlett added, and “He was tickled.”
Referring to the “Stack of books” poster that denotes the fundraising progress to date, the Rotary spokesman said,
“We can colour one and a half more books"
Engineers have been looking at the Arctic Ice Centre and working out plans for extending its life. The latest is a $7.8 million proposal, that town staff have since whittled down to $6.5 million. Town council heard about it on Sept. 18.
The work includes mechanical and electrical upgrades, building code upgrades, plumbing upgrades and renovations aimed at making the building more user-friendly. The latter item includes a new passageway between the two arenas that would improve traffic flow.
Councillors seemed to like what they saw of the plans.
“I like the design,” said councillor Rob Irwin. “It would buy us 20 years. It wouldn’t be new, but it would be a nice building, inside and out.”
But where would the money come from? Community services director Karl Hill told council he has applied for hefty grants.
But as councillor George Snider pointed out, the town would still have to come up with over $2 million. Some of the ‘bells and whistles’ might have to be cut out, he warned.
“It’s going to be a tight budget,” he said. “Maybe we can do this item and that item and not the rest and life’s tough.”
Snider also said he thinks the design, which would clad the older of the two arenas in an entirely new shell, “does look pretty impressive.” He urged administration to come up with some three-dimensional drawings and post them for the public viewing.
Council voted to defer a decision on the project until the 2008 budget deliberations, which begin later this year.

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