Brandon’s Boyd Stadium has won $20,000 in prize money from its Kraft Heinz Project play run. Although Brandon wasn’t able to secure the grand prize of 250,000 dollars for this new community project, it is still quite impressive that we managed to have our nomination finish in the top four out of a total of 1195 nominations from across Canada. The Kraft Heinz Project Play allows community members from every corner of this nation to nominate a play-based facility either planned or existing. The nominated project is then entered in an election to see which one wins the grand prize, votes are open to all Canadians. As one can imagine this competition often boils down to which project receives the most support from its own community, as few are willing to vote on projects of distant towns to win. Brandonites can be proud in the knowledge that we were able to display support for developing our community to an extent that nearly outclassed all of the rest of Canada.

The $20,000 will now go towards the building of Boyd Stadium. The project is led by the Westman Youth Football Association (WYFA), and is built on land that they acquired through a donation from Simplot Millennium Park. Upon completion the complex will include two football fields which will be the new home for the W.Y.F.A. and the Westman Wolverines. A clubhouse, picnic area and parking lot will be part of the later phase in the stadium’s construction. The stadium was named in honor of Kevin Boyd, who was a high school and youth league coach and as such mentored over 5000 kids. It was his dream to see a place established that the W.Y.F.A. could call home and this project is making that a reality. The stadium is projected to cost $800,000 and the prize money won’t completely cover that cost. Brandonites, however, displayed the ability to work together to see their project succeed, by voting it into the top four of a nationwide election, so there is little doubt that they will continue doing so.