Year in and year out, the Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Banquet finds a way to outdo itself.
Have a few big ticket auction items one year, and bring in even more the next. Have a huge crowd to mark the return from the pandemic, pack even more people into the building the following year.
So when the 30th annual edition of the event took place on Saturday night at the Heritage Inn, you knew it was going to be a special and record-setting evening.
More than 500 people packed the ballroom to give the Banquet its largest crowd ever, and by the time everything was said and done with the auctions, chairman Cory Olafson estimated it would also be their most profitable in history.
“It was a great night,” Olafson said shortly after helping with cleanup on Sunday afternoon. “It was a record attendance and there was a record amount raised in the auctions, so it should be our best Dinner to date, maybe in the $100,000 range.”
A huge part of that, of course, is the quality of the show the Kinsmen put on and the calibre of guests. That was no exception this year, as Hockey Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne joined former teammate and Stanley Cup champion Ryan Getzlaf and World Series champion Pat Tabler in regaling Banquet patrons with tales during the always-popular Hot Stove, hosted by broadcasting legend and MC Rod Black.
“They were all really good, really entertaining,” Olafson said. “Ryan and Teemu played together a lot of years, so there was a lot of camaraderie and great stories. And Rod is a consummate professional, one of the best in the business; he draws out the stories and did a bang-up job last night, too.”
The auction items were also a huge hit. A golf trip with Selanne and Getzlaf brought in $14,000 by itself, and other items approached the $8,000 range, including a signed Connor Bedard jersey, signed Selanne, Getzlaf and Tabler jerseys and a handful of special prints and other items.
“The auction is where we make our money, and it’s always amazing to see the kind of support we get,” Olafson said.
The overall total raised for the 30 years of Banquets is expected to cross the $2 million mark when all is said and done with 2023, with all of that money having gone back into the community through the Kinsmen’s many, many ventures.
That’s all because of the ongoing support of the event’s patrons, many of whom have been part of it all since the beginning.
“You look at the first three rows, that’s all our corporate sponsors, and there’s been very little turnover for a very long time in those first three rows,” Olafson said.
“A lot of them are friends of mine and I know them through business and every year I pick up the phone or text them and they’re automatically in. It makes it easier for us, for sure. There are so many table sponsors in that room that have been around for 20, 25, 30 years and it’s just great.”
A trio of awards were also presented on the night, with local wheelchair curling legend Marie Wright receiving the Kinsmen Sports Achievement Award, longtime baseball and curling coach Stan Montgomery (post-mortem) received the Moose Jaw Express Sports Builder Award and the Moose Jaw All-Stars Canadian Little League finalists were the 800 CHAB Team of the Year Award.
