ICEMAN A BIG BOOSTER OF ARENA ACTIVITIES
PHOTO BY ANTHONY HOULE PHOTOGRAPHY
Until his 2025 retirement from official duties after 13 years, Fawcett area farmer Gordon McCann oversaw shinny games and hockey practices and maintained the ice at the Fawcett Community Hall and Arena. Its schedule now includes men’s and children’s leagues, and its two curling sheets are central to the community’s annual cabaret and bonspiel to be held this year in late January. Nicknamed Iceman McCann by young skaters, he continues to take on occasional volunteer arena activities and will field a team in the bonspiel.
Prior to his Iceman days, the arena building had sat unused. Kids in the area had nowhere to skate, so McCann launched a community work bee to fix the dressing rooms. New boards, Plexiglas and heaters were installed and a new-model Zamboni purchased. Pulled behind a Massey Ferguson 65 tractor, an older pull-type Zamboni (pictured above) also remains in active service.
A lifelong farmer, McCann has also dialed down these duties but assists his son Michael with grain and hay crops and the family’s 120 cows. Though McCann continues to keep his hand in both ice and agriculture, he also remains very active in additional community duties. He and his family volunteer with the Fawcett Ag Society where his son Nicholas is president. This includes set up for funeral receptions and farmers’ markets. McCann has also helped maintain the local cemetery since 1967, where, as a boy, he helped install cement row markers. His work to establish names and histories for 18 unmarked graves from the 1930s and ’40s (he has identified all but two) earned him a reputation as the community’s unofficial historian.
While he takes all his rural community duties seriously, McCann remains an Arena cheerleader. “It’s either go to the Arena or the cemetery; which is more exciting?” he said. He encourages his neighbours to take a break from their TVs and smartphones and socialize. “It’s very cheap entertainment. Come out and have some fun!”
Comments