Rotary, RCMP ready to have a ball
This year the ball takes place Sept.10 at the Canad Inns with proceeds from the evening going in support of Rotary youth projects, such as Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, youth exchanges inbound and outbound, playgrounds, scoreboards at Republic of Manitobah Park and Portage Collegiate Institute future projects.
"We're down to a couple of key areas," said Rotarian Wayne Klippenstein.
There are about 100 tickets available for the event and the Rotary Club is aiming to sell it out.
"We have about 100 tickets left to make this a complete sellout," Klippenstein. "If (Rotarians) can each pick up one or two ticket sales we're there."
In order to ensure a spot at the gala, Portagers should pick up there tickets now before they sellout, Klippenstein said.
"Tell your friends, tell your co-workers, tell everybody you know," said Portage Rotary Club past-president Donny Todoruk. "We need to sell at least a good 75% of those. That would be awesome."
The next step in getting ready for the gala is getting the word out, Klippenstein said.
"We've got a few people in the club that are going to make a concentrated effort to contact some businesses to just make sure that everyone knows that tickets are available," he said.
Tickets are $85 each or $640 for a table of eight and are available at the RCMP Central Plains Detachment or from a Rotary Club member.
The evening will feature a world championship curler as the guest speaker. Playing second for the Jennifer Jones rink out of the St. Vital Curling Club, Jill Officer has appeared in two world championships, taking gold in 2008 and bronze in 2010. Officer is no stranger at the national championship with seven Scotties Tournament of Hearts appearances under her belt from 2005 to 2010. Officer has curled competitively for 23 years and will share her experience of competing at an international level.
The night's entertainment will be Air Command Band. The Air Command Band has performed for more than 50 years. As of 2009, the band's focus shifted to small ensembles, including a show band, a small wind group, a Brass Group, and several other pop-music ensembles. Additionally, a new Pipes and Drums Section has been added to the unit. The show band, which is comprised of vocalists, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums percussion and horn sections, will perform at the gala.
The show band's repertoire is tailored to keep pace with the musical tastes of today's Canadian Forces personnel. The band's set will include popular hits from bands, such as Johnny Cash, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Metallica, Pink, The Tragically Hip, Miley Cyrus, Elvis and Portage la Prairie's Doc Walker.
For more information, contact the RCMP at 857-4445, or Klippenstein at 267-3626.
Story courtesy Portage Daily Graphic and Ron Thomson.