When teams across the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) hit the ice this fall, they’ll all have one goal in mind – hoisting the newly-minted CANTERRA SEEDS Cup in the spring.
“We couldn’t ask for a better fit than the name of a farmer-owned company with deep roots in our province on our championship cup,“ says Kyle McIntyre, Commissioner of the SJHL. “When CANTERRA SEEDS reached out to us about sponsorship opportunities and I mentioned the naming rights had become available, they jumped on the opportunity immediately.”
For CANTERRA SEEDS, partnering with the league as a major sponsor is another piece of the company’s commitment to supporting rural communities across Western Canada.
“It’s important to us, as a company, to see the resources we have available for sponsorships benefit rural communities – the communities we live and work in – as much as possible,” says David Hansen, President and CEO of CANTERRA SEEDS.
“This opportunity to work with the SJHL and the twelve teams and towns from all corners of Saskatchewan, and to have them play for a championship cup with our name on it, is just really special,” he says.
In addition to the naming rights for the cup, CANTERRA SEEDS has signed on for on ice sponsorships in all of the team arenas and the bantam draft in June of next year.
The company and the league will also be working together over the next few months to design and produce a new cup to be handed to the top team in the league next spring.
“The league has been thinking about introducing a new cup design since last season and when we started talking with Canterra Seeds about the naming rights, it all just came together,“ says McIntyre. “Both of our organizations are really excited about collaborating on a new cup and seeing it raised for the first time.”
Rooted in the Prairies
The partnership with the SJHL is the latest of a number of rural-focused organizations CANTERRA SEEDS has thrown their support behind, including 4-H Canada, Ag in the Classroom and the company’s own initiative, the Rooted in the Prairies Project.
“We celebrated our 25th anniversary last year and as part of that milestone launched our Rooted in the Prairies Project,” says Hansen.
In that first year, $25,000 was committed to 10 projects by the company’s seed growers and farmer customers, but with opportunities for nominees to match or amplify the investment, the total raised was over $161,000. Now in its second year, the project has doubled its investment and will be supporting seventeen worthy causes.
“After seeing the effect of last year’s project – the communities it touched and the people it helped – we knew we had to do it again.” says Hansen. “Like building a championship team in the SJHL, it’s all about teamwork. We are able to plant a seed – our investment – to help these projects, but then so many people come together and work so hard to turn that seed into a big win for everyone.”