Article appeared in the Aug. 4, 2011 issue of the Interlake Spectator…
It was not for a lack of effort that Arborg lost to MacGregor in the Canada-wide Kraft-TSN community makeover competition that took place on July 21. The town with the most on-line votes in 24 hours would be the winner of the $25,000.00 community make-over to a sports facility in their community.
“Everybody that I talked to was excited. Everybody in town did their part,” said Tom Chwaliboga, Director of the Arborg-Bifrost Recreation Centre.
MacGregor received 300,000 votes, while Arborg fell a little short, with only 150,000. However, Arborg did out-vote nine of the 20 communities that took part.
Some voters for Arborg spent three to five hours in front of their computers on voting day, casting up to 600 votes.
“I know people who voted more…one was my wife, the other was a board member,” said Chwaliboga.
“If we ever get the opportunity to do this again, we know we will have to do a little better,” he added.
Chwaliboga also did his part by casting hundreds of votes while on a trip to Boissevain during baseball provincials.
“We took our laptops…we had kid on their computers in Brandon voting,” he said.
Chwaliboga feels that the competition was positive, despite the loss.
“It created a little bit of community enthusiasm and pride, and brought recognition to the fact that not all of the recreational facilities in Arborg are in perfect condition,” he said.
Winning the makeover competition would have meant improvements to Arborg’s soccer field and track. Chwaliboga’s hope now is to see the community work together to come up with a plan to make the needed improvements.
