Pilot Mound is a sports town and a hockey town in particular.
We’re a grassroots community which has woven hockey into a huge piece of our social fabric.
Our commitment and passion for the game grows stronger every year.
In 1947, in desperate need of a new arena because of a fire, our volunteers dismantled and salvaged the materials of an old Air Force Hangar over 100 km away. By 1949, volunteers gave re-birth to this old hangar to open Pilot Mound Arena.
50 years later that old hangar had served its time. In 1999, community members decided that a fitting millennium project would be the creation of a new arena. What a major undertaking for a community of less than 1000 people from our youngest citizen to our oldest.
Our community history shows us that volunteer spirit brought results in 1947, why not again now?
By a stroke of luck, in 2000, we purchased an arena complex in an abandoned Northern Manitoba Hydro Community over 1200 km away. Our volunteers dismantled that building, loaded it on trucks and brought it home to begin what would turn into an 8 year project to re-build the pieces into a modern arena.
From 2000-2007, we have recycled and reused as much of that original complex as possible. We’ve upgraded whatever was necessary to make this facility as environmentally friendly and efficient as possible to make it affordable and pleasurable to EVERYONE.
The magnitude of this undertaking by volunteers is incomprehensible to most. Since 2000, our community members have committed over 150,000 volunteer hours on this project alone.
Why do we work so diligently?
We do this for the love of the game, for the passion we share for hockey in all its forms from young to old. In Pilot Mound, hockey provides us with an opportunity to teach values that create good citizens. Values such as teamwork, perseverance, commitment, effort and reward, care for others, tolerance, the importance of relationships, dedication and love of their community. These same values are being modeled by our volunteers as they ensure that our youth will have a place to play hockey into the future.
We believe that when individuals come together for a common goal for the good of all its citizens without expectation of personal rewards, the term "community spirit" is defined. In Pilot Mound, everything we do is with community spirit and passion. We are one of a kind.
Who can say they traveled a total of 100,800 km to dismantle an arena complex and relocate it to a site 1200 km away ... and rebuild it BIGGER and BETTER than EVER?
Who can say they raised over 2 million dollars by fundraising and other varied sources to pay for an arena complex? AND, continue to do so. To CELEBRATE the OFFICIAL OPENING IN 2008!
Who else can say that this feat is being accomplished with community volunteers?
We can -------PILOT MOUND, MANITOBA! That’s original and that’s why we’re CBC/Kraft Hockeyville.
Submitted by Bronwen Dobson
We’re a grassroots community which has woven hockey into a huge piece of our social fabric.
Our commitment and passion for the game grows stronger every year.
In 1947, in desperate need of a new arena because of a fire, our volunteers dismantled and salvaged the materials of an old Air Force Hangar over 100 km away. By 1949, volunteers gave re-birth to this old hangar to open Pilot Mound Arena.
50 years later that old hangar had served its time. In 1999, community members decided that a fitting millennium project would be the creation of a new arena. What a major undertaking for a community of less than 1000 people from our youngest citizen to our oldest.
Our community history shows us that volunteer spirit brought results in 1947, why not again now?
By a stroke of luck, in 2000, we purchased an arena complex in an abandoned Northern Manitoba Hydro Community over 1200 km away. Our volunteers dismantled that building, loaded it on trucks and brought it home to begin what would turn into an 8 year project to re-build the pieces into a modern arena.
From 2000-2007, we have recycled and reused as much of that original complex as possible. We’ve upgraded whatever was necessary to make this facility as environmentally friendly and efficient as possible to make it affordable and pleasurable to EVERYONE.
The magnitude of this undertaking by volunteers is incomprehensible to most. Since 2000, our community members have committed over 150,000 volunteer hours on this project alone.
Why do we work so diligently?
We do this for the love of the game, for the passion we share for hockey in all its forms from young to old. In Pilot Mound, hockey provides us with an opportunity to teach values that create good citizens. Values such as teamwork, perseverance, commitment, effort and reward, care for others, tolerance, the importance of relationships, dedication and love of their community. These same values are being modeled by our volunteers as they ensure that our youth will have a place to play hockey into the future.
We believe that when individuals come together for a common goal for the good of all its citizens without expectation of personal rewards, the term "community spirit" is defined. In Pilot Mound, everything we do is with community spirit and passion. We are one of a kind.
Who can say they traveled a total of 100,800 km to dismantle an arena complex and relocate it to a site 1200 km away ... and rebuild it BIGGER and BETTER than EVER?
Who can say they raised over 2 million dollars by fundraising and other varied sources to pay for an arena complex? AND, continue to do so. To CELEBRATE the OFFICIAL OPENING IN 2008!
Who else can say that this feat is being accomplished with community volunteers?
We can -------PILOT MOUND, MANITOBA! That’s original and that’s why we’re CBC/Kraft Hockeyville.
Submitted by Bronwen Dobson