Portage College’s Student Scholarship Fundraising Dinner bringing in NHL legends

Image credit: Portage College. 

Three NHL legends are coming to Lac La Biche for a special fundraising event for post-secondary students.

Stanley Cup champions Doug Gilmour and Kevin McClelland will be joined by long-time NHLer Shayne Corson for Portage College’s Student Scholarship Fundraising dinner on March 28.

All three players donned the Oilers or Flames sweaters during their careers, so the night is “Battle of Alberta” themed.

“We’re extremely excited about it,” said Rick Flumian, Portage College’s manager of community relationships.

“It’s our 20th year of running this event. All the money raised from this event goes directly to student scholarships, which Portage College is a big part of northeastern Alberta with our campuses everywhere in the region. What better way to give our students an opportunity to get scholarship money and be able to go to school,” he said.

 

The event at Portage College’s main campus in Lac La Biche includes a prime rib dinner and live auction items.

The former hockey stars will share stories from their life in hockey in the Hotstove Lounge with MC Robb Hunter and you’re encouraged to wear your favourite hockey jerseys at the event too.

“You‘ll have the opportunity to maybe get one of the speakers to sit at your table for dinner and everything else. They’ll be a lot of neat silent auction items, signed memorabilia, they’ll be some great games to play.

“They’ll also be a liquor tree. You can buy tickets to win $3000 worth of liquor. What better way to go into the summer into camping season. It all goes to a great cause.

“We wouldn’t be able to do it without our sponsors, our presenting sponsor again Cenovus Energy which is always a huge supporter of the college.

“We have our local grocery store Britton’s Your Independent Grocer helping us out with the community event that weekend because Lac La Biche is also Peewee Provincial Hockey Championships,” said Flumian.

The fundraiser is part of a three-year effort to raise $500,000 towards an endowment, which will be parsed out to students who volunteer in their communities.

“We’re really trying to get students to volunteer in their communities and things. We started this three years ago with this dinner being the biggest fundraiser for it. After three years we’re up to $410,000 raised for this endowment,” said Flumian.

“We’re hoping after this dinner we’re going to hit half-a-million-dollars which we’ll be able to start handing out scholarships. We’re hoping to hand out $25,000 a year in scholarships from this endowment.”

Tickets for the event are $100 each.

Cocktails begin at 5:30pm and dinner gets going at 6:30pm.

“We really want you to come out and have a great time and enjoy the atmosphere. Like I said, it’s always a lot of fun. If you’re a hockey fan, when do you get an opportunity to meet hockey legends like this?”