Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines World Baseball Challenge a double winner at 2009 Chamber of Commerce Banquet

The organizing committee of the 2009 Enbridge Northern Gateway World Baseball Challenge would like to thank the Prince George Chamber of Commerce for two humbling awards given to the international baseball tournament at the annual banquet, which took place at the Coast Inn of the North on Saturday evening.
 
Awards named Saturday – Newsmaker of the Year (sponsored by The Prince George Citizen); and Tourism Excellence (sponsored by Initiatives Prince George)
 
The committee, represented at the banquet by co-chairs Shawn Rice and Jim Swanson, would like to recognize our talented, dedicated volunteers who served on the main committee and to those who helped throughout the tournament; and to thank the sponsors who stepped forward to show their belief in the goals of bringing the event to Prince George.
 
The WBC committee would also like to congratulate the other worthy winners Saturday, and recognize the outstanding nominees in the Newsmaker and Tourism categories – Dan McLaren and the Commonwealth Cup golf tournament, CN Centre, and the City of Prince George, who were all partners with the World Baseball Challenge.
 
“The Chamber put on a wonderful event, and it was tremendous to be able to see so many of our major sponsors at the banquet and to thank them for their integral role in the tournament,” said Shawn Rice, the WBC marketing director and co-chair.
 
“It is that kind of support that is encouraging us to look toward bringing the tournament back in 2011. We are discussing potential dates, speaking to major sponsors, and going through a full evaluation of the 2009 tournament to determine the next steps. Many of our committee members are still hard at work tying up loose ends dating back to July. Hopefully we can confirm that soon, and can make an announcement. We have met with our outstanding title sponsor, Enbridge, and are in dialogue with national team programs, with plans developing to send representatives to Lausanne, Switzerland in early December for the International Baseball Federation meetings.”
 
The WBC is honoured to be given the Tourism Excellence Award, which in the last few years has gone to the RBC Royal Bank Cup (2007) and the B.C. Seniors Games (2008), fantastic events for the community. The RBC Royal Bank Cup also won the Newsmaker of the Year Award in 2007. In 1996 the Newsmaker Award went to Nechako Little League in 1996 after the minor sports association, led by WBC co-chair Audrey Foster, played host to the Canadian Little League Championship.
 
In September, the WBC committee was given the “People Who Make A Difference” award by local MLAs Pat Bell and Shirley Bond, determined by “outstanding leadership qualities.”
 
The 2009 World Baseball Challenge took place at Prince George Citizen Field, July 16-26, featuring teams from Canada, Germany, the Bahamas and the United States. The U.S. National Team captured the title by defeating the German National Team in the championship game, and more than 18,000 went through the turnstiles. In addition, the tournament was shown live on-line through webcasts that logged more than 8,700 hours of viewing from more than a dozen countries around the world.
 
 
 
Find out more about the Enbridge Northern Gateway project at www.northerngateway.ca
 
Find out more about the Northern Gateway WBC at www.worldbaseball.ca