On your mark: Pearlgate hopeful as voting begins in TSN contest
Voting is underway as a track and field complex in Mount Pearl competes for first place in a national contest.
The Pearlgate Track and Field Club is one of the final four recreational facilities, and the only one from Atlantic Canada, competing for the $250,000 prize in the TSN Kraft Heinz Project Play contest.
The money would go towards improvements for the facility.
Mark Miller is a recreational runner and coach who nominated the club for the contest. Miller said because of the brief 36-hour window to vote, the club will be having a social media blitz and has set up a voting station at the track.
"We've got the school district to donate a number of iPads for the 36-hour voting period," he said.
"We're just going to have a big voting party up there, and we're just going to keep spreading the word."
Miller said the club even expanded its internet capacity to handle all the voting, and said members of the public are free to visit the track and vote.
Positive feedback
He said the effort to raise awareness for the contest has gone well and is expecting plenty of votes.
"I think we got out to everybody we wanted to get out to, we got all positive feedback, and now we're just transitioning into our voting phase," said Miller.
"We're expecting things to start with a bang, the big thing for us is to be able to keep up the momentum … we've got to keep their attention, and keep them voting the entire time."
He said the group at Pearlgate has worked hard to spread the word and is hopeful for the results.
"I wouldn't say I'm nervous, I'm optimistic," he said.
"I think that at the end of the day, we've done everything we can and we've left it all out on the table for it to play out. If it works out, that's great, if not, I think we gave it everything we had."
Voting is open from 1:30 p.m. NT on July 25 to 1:29 a.m. NT on July 27 with the final results being announced on Aug. 4.
Miller said nothing special is planned for the announcement — he'll just be waiting at home with his fingers crossed.
