Olympic Gold Medalist Tessa Virtue is finally coming to Weyburn this spring.
Originally booked for May of 2020, 'An Evening with Tessa' will now be happening on May 18th at the Weyburn Curling Rink.
"It's just a project that we thought of coming off of the end of 2018 and a massive win," explained Ryan Bader with the Young Fellows of Weyburn.
"With Tessa and Scott being probably the most high profile Olympians to ever come out of Canada, we wanted to really be able to send a message to youth about the type of hard work and perseverance if you can put that in, the sky is the limit, right? If you want to be an Olympian, there are opportunities there for you."
"Tessa and Scott both, I mean Tessa specifically for us, kind of fit that model, and [she's a] small-town girl from Ontario that put in a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication, a lot of practice."
He said adults and kids are welcome to attend, with about 500 tickets being sold.
"We're looking to get a real wide cross-section of people. It's a fun event. You can come out to and hear a nice message and spend some time in a group setting again."
The doors will open at 5:30 p.m. with a prime rib supper at 6:30, and entertainment to follow.
"It'll be a nice little fireside chat with Tessa," Bader noted. "We're going to be looking for some questions to ask Tessa during that fireside chat, so we'd like to just engage the community a little bit and see what kind of questions are you interested in having asked."
He said the duration of the fireside chat should be 60 to 90 minutes.
"The Club is always looking for new and unique things that we can do and bring to the community, with an eye of course to raising money that all goes back into the community for everybody to enjoy," he shared. "It's always fun to find those unique opportunities, right? We had our Centennial celebration last year that came together amazingly."
As Bader reminded, tickets for the centennial celebration did sell out prior to the day of the event.
"We like finding these things that can really bring some value to people in the community as well. And hopefully, the message resonates with a lot of people," he said. "There's a lot to admire about anybody who has that kind of passion and dedication to something and can help us all learn and grow as people too."
Tickets for adults are $100 each and tickets for kids 12 and under are $50, and children have to be accompanied by an adult. Tickets are available through any member of the Young Fellows of Weyburn, or at Barber Motors.