The annual Weyburn Beavers Sports Dinner saw another successful fundraiser on Saturday. President of the Weyburn Beavers Baseball Club, Garnet Hansen says this year’s event has been one of their most successful since they had the first one in 2017.
“If not the best, it'll be really, really close to being the best in terms of profit, so couldn't be happier. I think the community really stepped up. The revenue streams at the 50-50, both the silent and the live auction went really, really well and I mean, liquor sales were good, too.”
The live auction drew in significant profits due to the support of the community and sponsors. The live auction saw few big-ticket late additions, including tickets to an Edmonton Oilers game, and something from one of the special guests, former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher John Axford.
“On the way over to the event, he said to me, ‘do you think you'd like a signed Gordie Howe jersey? I could donate that’ and I said ‘absolutely, we would take that’ so he didn't bring it with him, but he had a photo of it and that went really well.”
"I just felt like everybody sort of rallied around and got all those. If they weren't donated, they were sponsored by a local company, so everything is 100% profit.”
Axford was accompanied by Sportsnet Central baseball analyst Jamie Campbell as special guests at the event, Hansen says while they’ve had big-name guests in the past, the pair was especially well received.
“When you get somebody like Jamie Campbell, as soon as I got him I knew I wanted him to kind of run the show because that's kind of what he does, right? And he did such a good job of queuing up John Axford and then also bringing in some stories of himself too, so I think it just shows the professionalism and the experience that Jamie Campbell has to navigate through that process and make it very relatable.”
Outside of MLB guests, both Mayor Jeff Richards and the WCBL’s Mark Stiles spoke at the event, commenting on the impact of the team on the community and the mission to ‘Build Back the Dam’. Hansen says they represented either side of the league and the community.
“To have Mark Stiles there from the league and comment, I think it further shows the commitment to some of the smaller franchises that they value us as a member of the WCBL. He came here on the league's dollar to sort of put his mark on the event and with his comments and there to support us, nice comments from Mayor Jeff Richards. I think people sense there's some movement there and with that support and then they in turn support the auction and the 50-50 and everything else.”
A key moment from the night was the unveiling of the new Weyburn Beavers Logo, featured on three baseball hats, two for Campbell and Axford, and one sold in the live auction. Brand new jersey designs were also unveiled for the upcoming season.
“We're pretty excited about the unveiling of the logo on the hat and with the two new sets of jerseys. Thanks to Baker Hughes for sponsoring the new jerseys. And we got something else coming up, but you're going to have to wait till probably end of May, first of June to see that.”
While the event had much to offer, Hansen credits some success to the timing, as the event is typically held in June with the players present. He explains the earlier date allows them to build some anticipation for the season before it begins.
“We’ve still got a couple months; we're end of May to start the season. I think it gives us a little bit of momentum and a little bit of a kick. We're getting some press in the middle of March, which you don't typically do. This being sort of the biggest single one event that we do in terms of fundraisers, but we do lots of corporate sponsorships and ticket sales. So the other revenue streams, I think this is going to help that out too, because it just creates an awareness.”
Hansen extends thanks to the community and the local businesses and organizations for their support.
“I’d like to thank everybody that came out to support us, like to thank all our sponsors, everybody in the community and everyone behind us. It was one of the most successful and probably got more positive comments on this one than any other previous sports dinner."