A small celebration was held at Memorial Arena in Chatham to recognize the improvements that have been made thanks to Kraft Hockeyville. 
Chatham finished second in the nationwide contest in 2015, winning $100,000.
Committee member Dennis Parker hopes that the Hockeyville upgrades will help encourage the municipality to put more money into the rink as well.
“We could definitely still use some plumbing, we could definitely still use some paint, you know something to give the community something to be proud of,” Parker says. “We’ve got some dressing room issues in terms of genders, so we can still use that stuff.”
The Hockeyville upgrades include a new digital outdoor sign, automatic doors, and heated spectator areas at the rink.
Fellow committee member Rebecca Reimer says hopefully this will be just the beginning.
“When we, as a committee, got together and wanted to do this, we hoped this would be something that would get the ball rolling and get people excited about this arena again,” Reimer says. “The improvements are a sign of hope and a sign of a future, there’s tons of history here but there’s also a future here, so we were just really excited to be a part of that.”
The work was finished earlier this year and ready to go in time for the hockey season to start.
