Terrace made history this year, becoming the first community in western Canada to win the coveted 2009 Hockeyville title. The city has now received its $100,000 prize money which it is using to renovate the sportsplex in order to host a pre-season NHL game this September 14, between the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Islanders. Although Terrace is celebrating its 1,923,456 votes to victory, there were five months of strong determination to bring it to reality. Back in November of last year, Carol Fielding responded to an ad put out by Tom Harwood – who had spearheaded an earlier Smithers bid for Hockeyville – seeing if anyone was interested in going for it in Terrace. After sending out a few e-mails to some key stakeholders, Fielding had herself a committee, and by mid-November the community was catching on and feeling the spirit. The first task for Terrace was to submit stories as to why Terrace is and should be Hockeyville. The Terrace is Hockeyville committee pushed for stories, and by December 6 the community had sent in 716 – the most in B.C. Along the journey a giant Terrace is Hockeyville hockey stick made its debut at the Hockeyville-themed Parade of Lights in December, jerseys were ordered, businesses and homes were decorated as Terrace embraced the challenge as a community. On January 14 people gathered in the Terrace sportsplex as CBC announced the Top 10 communities – with Terrace making the cut. Next the community played host to CBC, broadcasting live from Terrace during Hockey Night in Canada on Jan. 31. CBC-TV broadcaster and Canadian hockey Olympian Cassie Campbell came for the event as well as NHL alumnus and former Vancouver Canucks goaltender Kirk McLean. After a push for votes, Terrace was announced as the first community in the Top Five, then the real campaigning began. Terrace began the what’s your number campaign, getting everyone to pledge their number of votes before voting time arrived. The city was plastered with posters and people proudly wore buttons showcasing their number of votes, and Fielding camped out at the 24/hr voting centre in the Skeena Mall. All the hard work and commitment paid off as Terrace was announced as Hockeyville 2009 on live television March 7, with a CBC crew arriving minutes later with the Hockeyville trophy.