Neepawa Natives banquet a success

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Published on Thursday, March 10, 2016

By Eoin Devereux

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

The Neepawa Natives celebrated the end of 2015-2016 MJHL regular season with its annual year end banquet on Thursday, Mar. 3 at the Yellowhead Hall. The evening provided players, coaches, sponsors and fans a chance to mark the end of the season on a positive note.

Just over 250 people filled the Yellowhead Hall to be a part of the festivities, making it one of the most well attended year end event in recent memory.  While the majority of the player awards were handed out after the team’s final home game the following night, several volunteer honours were presented, including Dave McIntosh receiving the Keith Jordan Memorial award for his long standing volunteer service to the club. Wayne Jacobson was the recipient of the Gary Reidle Memorial Award, while Patrick Carlin earned the Lionel Crowther Award. Team chaplain Stafford Greer of PAC Neepawa was also singled out for his service to the club throughout the season.

The winners of the 2016 Neepawa Natives Cash Draw were also selected and announced. Garth and Gail White and family won the big prize of $15,000. This year’s draw was the most successful one for the club in quite some time, as all 800 tickets that were printed for the lottery were sold.

Team president Ken Waddell said overall, the board of directors is very happy with how the evening transpired. He added it was nice to see that the overall level of enthusiasm for the team continues to be strong.

“I think that everyone was very thrilled with the banquet. We sold out, which is a positive sign. It was one of the larger banquets that we’ve had. With the cash draw lottery also selling out, as well as the team’s hockey cards selling out, it made for a really good feeling in the hall that evening. The team is certainly very pleased with how it all turned out,” noted Waddell.

Neepawa Natives general manager Myles Cathcart agreed and added that night had a similar feel to that of the old days, when the club was just starting out.

“It felt a lot like the first 10, 12 years of the team, when there was lots of parents involved. Everybody showed up and did their part. It had a real good community vibe. That was a real positive aspect,” said Cathcart. “There was lots of feedback on the community awards, the dinner itself and of course the end result of the final game of the season (on Friday, Mar. 4).It was nothing but positive feedback from everybody.”

The positivity of the  year end banquet carried over to the next evening and the final home game of the MJHL regular season, as the Neepawa Natives were able to defeat the Winkler Flyers 5-4 in a shootout.