By Stephanie Villella

Small Alberta village in the lead to win “Mini” Big Valley Jamboree

Mar 26, 2017 | 5:52 PM

DUCHESS, AB — Residents in the small village of Duchess are campaigning to win the “mini” Big Valley Jamboree.

The competition is called Small Town Saturday Night, where small towns across Alberta signed up to win a one night concert performed by country singer Gord Bamford at the end of April.

Currently, Duchess is in first place with over 22,000 votes.

Duchess signed up for the competition in January and since then, has been urging people to vote for the village to win.

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Tina Preston and Traci Ion, the two women who registered Duchess, both said how impressed they are with the community getting together to vote.

“It’s been unreal,” said Ion. “I’ve been amazed by the people that are coming forward and just offering to help. Voting and finding friends and other family, that maybe aren’t even from here and have nothing to do with Duchess but are willing to help out.”

They said people across Canada have been voting for Duchess.  

“From Nova Scotia to Vancouver, those people have roots here,” said Preston. “Maybe they haven’t lived here for 50 years, but they have roots here.  And they still call this home.”

Not only does the winning town win a concert for the community, but the money made from the concert goes right back into the town.

Councillor Tony Steidel said Duchess needs the money to repair community facilities.

“Some of our Agriculture facilities are getting aged, our arena that was built in 1997 – 1998, the plant came from the old arena we had here,” he said. “And it is in dire need of a new one.  Also to make it more cost efficient, we are looking at one.  And it’s about $300, 000 to replace it.”

Steidel said the village could win up to $75,000 from the concert, depending on how many people can fit into the venue.

If Duchess does win, Gord Bamford will perform at the Duchess Arena, the facility that needs repairs.

But the money is not the only thing Duchess is looking forward to.

 Preston said Big Valley Jamboree will also help with the fine arts program in the school.

 “BVJ also sent and asked for information regarding our fine arts program for our school,” she said. “So I sent them information regarding our drama program, our arts program, our band program, telling them what we teach and areas of deficiencies.  We don’t have a lot of mentorship for them and we don’t have a lot of storage space for them.  So it sounds like BVJ will help us in that area as well.”

She said it would be “awesome” if Duchess does win Small Town Saturday Night.  But said “even if we don’t, it’s just amazing, it’s just utterly amazing, the people that have supported us.”

Voting closes Monday at midnight and the winning town will be announced March 29.