Sponsors named for 2010 Tankard
By Jim Barber
Napanee Guide
June 11, 2009
Although the 2010 Ontario Men's Curling Championship is still many months away, the organizing committee has been working hard to secure corporate and community partnerships to help make the event a success.
On Tuesday, many of those sponsors gathered with officials from the 2010 Tankard host committee to announce just who had stepped into the hack.
"Today is all about our partners, our community partners. An event of this magnitude could not happen without those partners," said host committee chairperson Stephen Paul.
"We were all kind of worried a little bit, with all the economic struggles and the things that are happening in the economy, how successful we would be in our sponsorship approach. I think you can see from the folks in the room and all these logos that are on the board, that we've been very successful. And that speaks volumes about this community and how everyone gets behind events."
Paul announced that the Premier Corporate Partners for the event are Century 21 Lanthorn Real Estate Ltd., The Bath Plant of Lafarge Canada, Waste Management Inc., and the Bank of Montreal.
"We at Century 21 Napanee have a firm belief in being involved in something to give back to our community, and we try to do it every three months somewhere in the area, whether it be in Napanee, or the county," said Robert Storring.
"This particular event is very much like the hockey event [last year's women's under-18 national championships] and we saw the value of what it did for the area, bringing people into the area to expose the whole area to out of towners ... and it is good for our business. We are that kind of business."
Storring pointed out that the money being put up for the sponsorship was not coming from Century 21 head office but that it "comes right out of the salespeople's pockets."
Mike Kralik of Lafarge said his company was "very proud to be a part of not only this function, but many other functions as well.
"We feel the communities in the surrounding areas are very important to what we do, and we would like to give back to them as much as we can."
Randy Harris, representing Waste Management, like Storring, saw the benefits of sponsoring an event the magnitude of the under-18 women's hockey championship, and decided the Tankard could offer similar benefits to his company.
"It's a great event for the community, and we're proud to be asked to be a sponsor. We were also involved in the under-18. It was an enormous success, and I am sure this event is going to be every bit as successful," he said. "Our hats are off to the organizers and the volunteers and the town – everybody that it takes to put an event like this together."
Mike Wilson of the Bank of Montreal said the bank was "very pleased to be a part of this community-driven event."
Osprey Sun Media Group, which includes the Napanee Guide as well as the Belleville Intelligencer and Kingston Whig-Standard, is the official newspaper sponsor for the event.
"We're really happy to be sponsoring, supporting and covering the 2010 tankard," said Guide general manager Ron Drillen.
MY FM 88.7 has been named the official radio sponsor, while CKWS Television from Kingston is the official TV sponsor.
"The ability to have media partners and marketing partners on board to assist us in getting the word out, and filling those seats throughout the week, is a crucial part of the event and the team itself," said Paul.
Other partners included the Hampton Inn Napanee, M&M Meat Shops, Snappy Print, and George A. Grant Insurance.
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