AMHERST – The ice-skating program at West Highlands Elementary School just got $500 richer.
The school won a sporting goods contest carried out by Amherst Canadian Tire, and the school bought skates and helmets for their skating program.
“It’s awesome,” said Dallas Mannette, a Grade 4 student at West Highlands.
Amherst Canadian Tire often gets requests for sporting equipment from local schools but, because of the large number of schools in the area, picking which schools to support can be an impossible task, “so we put on a contest through our Facebook page and whatever school visited the website the most won the contest,” said Mike Symonds, Amherst Canadian Tire general manager.
Mannette, whose favourite team is the Pittsburgh Penguins and favourite player is Sidney Crosby, said he likes to spend the winter skating and shooting pucks in the net at his local outdoor skating rink.
He also participates in the skating program at West Highlands and said he will probably use the new equipment.
“I like skating, so it’ll be fun,” he said.
The contest was beneficial for Canadian Tire because it increased traffic to their Facebook page, and it was beneficial for the kids who won the contest.
“It’s testing the usefulness of Facebook and how it can be used in a positive way,” said Symonds.
Symonds said the test was a success and that they will probably do it again at some point in the future.
Almost 30 schools were allowed to participate in the contest, which started Feb. 22 and ended March 30.
West Highlands finished first with 1,064 votes, Parrsboro Elementary School came a close second with 1,030 votes and the Oxford Regional Education Centre finished third with 318 votes.
When the contest wrapped up, Amherst Canadian Tire decided to give Parrsboro elementary $250 towards the purchase of new sports equipment.
dmathieson@amherstdaily.com
