The Kraft Celebration Tour came about from a conversation Jill had with a friend regarding funding opportunities where she casually mentioned the Kraft Celebration Tour. This sparked Jill’s interest in terms of wondering if this was something realistic that could be done and her initial thoughts targeted the Elizabeth Swan Park. Jill Monk grew up using the park in Clarenville and continues to use the facility with her family today. After reviewing the entire process she believed this goal was achievable!!! Thus, Jill took some pictures of the park and wrote a letter of submission during the 1st Week of June. From there she became extremely busy gathering up on-line support for the submission. She asked all her email contacts, family, friends, staff, and students to support the project and in turn they all did the same. The park is so instrumental to so many community uses/events that everyone just seemed to want to help in the cause!!! When all was said and done on June 10th when the nomination closed The Elizabeth Swan Submission had over 1000 people showing support!!!
The top 20 submissions were decided by criteria and judging completed by Kraft. On July 1st the official announcement was made on TSN Sports Centre around 7 pm and Clarenville had made it!!! Clarenville would face off with Canning Nova Scotia in a head to head online voting competition for the $25 000.00 grant and the opportunity to host TSN Sports Centre live. Within ten minutes of the announcement Jill received a call on her cell where they were camping at Lakeside; that a camera crew from TSN was in Clarenville and wanted to tape footage within the next hour…and the whirl wind started from there!!!
They had 10 days to prepare for the voting event. During that time there was much to be done…Jill invited a group of friends/ acquaintances with specific skill sets to form a committee to promote the competition. They partnered with the Town of Clarenville and Clarenville Area Athletic Association to promote and organize the various stages of the event.
After they were declared winners a number of things also had to be arranged for the August 18th Show. The Town of Clarenville would be having officials from Kraft & TSN visit their community to do a live broadcast.
Jill indicated that the entire event was worth all the work and volunteer hours. It was a reaffirmation of her faith in our community to come together to achieve greatness!! It proved that anything is possible when you have a committed group of people working together to achieve a common goal. She was fortunate to work with a fantastic team of talented volunteers. The experience was definitely rich in community building and for two months Clarenville was promoted on National Television. Jill is also very pleased that this contest also fostered an extremely valuable educational piece – The story of Elizabeth Swan – giving a more personal connection to the naming of the park. The $25 000.00 prize and the community support has been a catalyst in driving the Elizabeth Swan Park Project as presently there is a $600 000.00 commitment from the Town, Provincial Government, and ACOA combined to build a new Chalet as part of the first phase of revitalizing the park.
Other Community Involvement 2012:
- Secretary with the Clarenville Area Recreation Association
- Presented with the President’s Award
- Executive Member – Director of Clarenville Area Soccer Association
- Vice-Chair of Clarenville Minor Softball
- Executive Member of the Clarenville Area Minor Hockey Association
- Awarded Hockey Mom of the Year Award
- Executive Member – Directors with Clarenville Sr. Caribous Organization
- 2014 NL Winter Games Committee
- Vice-Chair of Organizing Committee
- Chair of the Ceremonies, VIP Reception, Protocol, Relay Committee
