BONNYVILLE — The Saturday nights lights shone brightly on the Walsh Field as family and football alumni cheered on the Bonnyville Voyageurs and the Cold Lake Royals during the 12th annual Scott MacDonald Memorial Football match.
The memorial event this season had to be intentionally subdued by event organizers, following the recent return of health restrictions announced by the Alberta government, according to Naomi Fraser, the president of the Bonnyville Amateur Football Parents' Association.
After having to completely forgo last year's event due to the pandemic, Fraser said, without canceling the event this time around organizers had to find a way to limit crowds while still allowing family members to watch the young athletes play.
“We had to take into account how many people we do actually get. The head shaves, especially draw in a lot of family members, even more than today — everybody wants to see it, everybody wants to support the kids doing it — so, that weighed in and made a big, big part of this decision to move the halftime head shaves and silent auction online.”
A cheer performance by the Bonnyville Premier Academy was also cut from the program to reduce spectators. The mid-day Bonnyville Renegades games had to be canceled following a forfeit from the Lloydminister Colts after a player tested positive for COVID-19. A replacement match could not be arranged by the time of the event.
Flag football scrimmages by the Atoms, as well as the Bonnyville Bandit and Cold Lake Ravens game were able to go ahead as planned. The Bandits won 36-20 against their competitors.
During the final game of the evening, the Cold Lake Royals were able to pull out a win against the Voyageurs 19-6.
Head shaves go online
Making changes to the program was not done lightly, Fraser told Lakeland This Week.
In the days to come, head shave videos and pictures from players raising pledges for the Scott MacDonald Memorial will be posted to the Voyageurs’ and Bandits’ social media pages.
Explaining the decision to move some of the events online, Fraser said, "We really wanted to make it as safe as possible, but still have the spirit of the day come through... I think the community and spectators understand that we are at the mercy of restriction. We don't want to make anybody uncomfortable or sick in any way.”
An online auction is also being held, where residents can bid on donated auction items until Sept. 25, at 8 p.m.
“Even though it's been a hard time in these last 18 months, the community really stepped up for us,” said Fraser. “We had people that weren't even attached to the club wanting to come and help today. And if we hadn't had to scale back, we would have had a lot of people who don't have kids or any kind of relative playing that were willing to come out and donate their time.”
“It really shows you what community means,” she added.
