Over the weekend of Feb. 24 to Feb. 27, St. Albert hosted the bi-annual Alberta 55 Plus Winter Games, including over 1,000 participants from the eight zones representing the entire province.
The people of St. Albert should be very proud of the entire package planned, assembled and presented by chairperson Sandra Fenton, her games committee and the 800-plus volunteers looking after every detail from information packages, accommodations, food services, venues, security and safety, entertainment, officials, opening and closing ceremonies and no doubt a million other responsibilities.
Your major games centre, Servus Credit Union Place, is a magnificent facility, undoubtedly the heart of this grand venture and your beautiful community. So much occurred under its roof, from the very colourful and entertaining open and closing ceremonies to the extraordinary food service, hospitality centre and hockey.
Our zone four 65-plus hockey team faced a very traumatic and heartbreaking experience with the sudden death on the ice of our goalie Marvin Klein, a fine gentleman and sportsman from the Hay Lakes area northwest of Camrose. We greatly appreciate and give our sincere gratitude to the Servus Place staff and city EMT personnel, plus the courageous volunteers from the stands who tried so diligently for so long to save Klein’s life.
On behalf of the zone four 65-plus team and all the other hockey players from zone four, I salute everyone responsible for the 2011 Alberta 55 Plus Winter Games, including the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks & Wildlife Foundation, the Alberta Department of Tourism, Parks and Recreation, all the other sponsors, and again the volunteers. You did indeed Bring It On in fine style and brought it off with flair, enthusiasm and a tonne of hard work. Thank you very much.
Pete Weddell, Red Deer
