After a 10-year hiatus, the 100 Mile House RCMP and 100 Mile Fire Rescue are coming together again for the Guns vs Hoses charity hockey game.
Set to be held on Saturday, Dec. 14 at the South Cariboo Rec Centre starting at 7 p.m., the event will benefit the 100 Mile House Food Bank Society. B.C. Highway Patrol Sgt. Jason Nash and 100 Mile Fire Chief Dave Bissat, who are jointly organizing the event, said they hope to make hockey game a new annual tradition for their respective organizations.
"We were approached by a community member who was interested in this game from the past and hadn't seen it over the years," Nash said. "We put our heads together to see if there was any interest and we were able to garner enough interest between the RCMP and the fire department to get this off the ground this year. We're looking for this to be a good friendly game, it won't be overly aggressive, but it will be a good time for some guys to get together and have a good hockey game in front of the community."
Doors for the game open at 6:30 p.m. with admission to the game being by donation of at least one non-perishable food item per attendee. During the game, a raffle will be held by donation with participants getting the chance to win several gift baskets from local businesses. All proceeds will go to the food bank, whose representatives will be on site.
In between each period of play between the firefighters and RCMP, Nash and Bissat plan to have short games of 100 Mile Minor Hockey teams playing against one another for the crowd's enjoyment. Nash is also working to arrange a visit from Santa Claus himself, though he said this is still being organized.
"We're trying to make this a festive, community-involved event," Nash remarked.
Unlike Nash, Bissat remembers the last time the fire department and cops faced off against one another and said it was a ton of fun. Back then they used to do road hockey in the arena with no ice, so he was excited to fire this event up.
"We want to get out more in the community and do something fun and give people something to do," Bissat said. "I have coached lots of minor hockey for the last 15, 16 years here so it's good to get the kids involved, out there and be a part of the community."
Nash said that the RCMP team will be made up of a mix of 100 Mile House RCMP officers, BC Highway Patrol officers and a few local community members. Bissat meanwhile said his fire crew are in good shape, certainly better than the RCMP according to him, and has augmented their numbers with volunteers from fire departments in Vancouver and Terrace along with Cariboo Regional District Fire Chief Roger Hollander. Nash estimates they'll have about 13 to 15 players per team, enough for three lines each.
"This is a non-competitive game and it doesn't really matter who wins, so long as everybody has fun," Nash said, when asked who he thought was going to win. "I am going to bet the buffalo (RCMP) is going to come out on top of this one."
If this game is well received by the community, Nash and Bissat would like to turn it into an annual event. The non-profit they will benefit will likely change each year, Nash said, depending on the needs of the community.
"My vision would be that this would continue on and we build on it and make it bigger and brighter as we go forward," Nash remarked.
Nash added they welcome donations of gift baskets for the raffle from community businesses. Any interested in doing so can reach out to 100 Mile Fire Rescue or 100 Mile House RCMP to arrange the donation.
