Profiler:

Nick Best graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto prior to entering a fifty-year law career.

In addition to playing football for the Varsity Blues, while at U of T Nick was exposed to Musical Theater and that became an ongoing interest.

Camping and canoeing soon morphed into serious rafting and white-water activity on a multitude of well-known rivers (French, Fraser, Nahanni and many others).

Using the Ski Patrol as a back door to Osler Bluff Ski Club, he eventually went on to serve as a board member in addition other volunteer positions with his tennis club and condo corporation.

Nick has two sons and moved to Collingwood with his wife Patricia in 2018.

Kultural Attache:

Doug Ellsworth continued his role as our “winter” Kultural Attache and regaled us with a curated selection of humour. The jokes can be found under the Members tab on the Website.

Guest Speaker:

At the very last minute, our scheduled speaker Dave Steeles was summoned to an in-camera Collingwood Town Council meeting to discuss The Collingwood Blues new lease on the Eddie Bush arena.

Dave will be back to speak at our March meeting and should be able to share his success then.

Former Mayor (and Blues executive member) Terry Geddes was able to fill in and provide much of the lease and team background information for us.

When the team mission statement “Work Hard – Give Back (to the community” was established the Executive hired top quality individuals to manage and coach the hockey operation then pledged not to interfere. Good decisions because, in only its second year, the team has a Number 2 national ranking!

All players must aspire to post-secondary education and maintain academic success.

The Town’s initial lease offer was 116% over the prior years’ agreement (and the team lost $42,000 last year). The current regular schedule budget is $800,000 (including $27,000 for hockey sticks).

Terry pointed out that, in addition to generating a $1.45 million positive economic impact for the Town, the Blues raised over $31,000 to support local individuals undergoing cancer treatment and the Collingwood General & Marine Hospital's diagnostic imaging department.

Bring a Guest Winner:

George Christie (he won last month too!) and David Thomson

50/50 Winners:

(left to right) Dan Edwards, Richard Toy, Eddie Sokoloff