Submitted by: Sherry Martin | Swan Valley Animal Protection League was lucky enough to have very special guests at their annual barbecue on June 19, 2018. Chay Genoway, an Olympic bronze medalist with the Canadian Men’s Hockey Team, and his fiancee Amanda joined us for the event! It was a beautiful day, and the Farmer’s Market at the Elbert Chartrand Friendship Centre is a perfect location to hold an event such as this. Lisa Scales and Audrey Sercombe brought a few furry friends from the shelter to join in the fun!

Chay and Amanda brought a number of Olympic goodies to raffle off, and they donated the proceeds to SVAPL. Wayne Markle won the much coveted autographed hockey stick that Chay used in the Olympic games.

Tanya Powell was the lucky winner of an autographed Jonathan Toews framed photo. Toews currently plays for the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL and is a friend of Chay’s. Virginia Church’s name was drawn for the Olympic toque, scarf and gloves; and Burke Yakimishen walked away with an Olympic hat and hockey card autographed by Chay Genoway. Stephen Boyachuk won a sweet Olympic dog sweater and a hockey card autographed by Jonathan Toews.

Chay spent a lot of time visiting with everyone and happily answered questions and had his photo taken with many people, including one little fellow with exactly the same name: Chay!

But one person in particular seemed to make a special connection with him. John Schabert spent a lot of time with Chay, chatting about hockey and the Olympics.

Not only did Chay present John with an autographed hat, but at the end of the day, he decided to surprise John with a great gift: an autographed Team Canada jersey bearing Chay’s name and number #5!

SVAPL would like to thank all the volunteers for their hard work setting up and taking down tables and chairs, selling tickets and merchandise, and looking after the food and drinks.

Special thanks to Chay and Amanda for attending and bringing all the raffle items, and to Kathy Fisher and Brian Minish for helping to arrange the event.

We would also like to send a huge shout out to Atkinson Farms along with Anderson’s for donating ALL of the delicious Bison burgers for both the 4H and SVAPL barbecues. It was greatly appreciated. A big thanks to the following: the Elbert Chartrand Friendship Centre for letting us use the Farmers Market venue, the Town of Swan River for providing tables & chairs, the Kinsmen for the use of their grill, and to Lion Wayne Markle for lending us the sandwich board signs. And last but certainly not least, thank you to everyone who attended and made the barbecue a great success!