Pro Sports and Faith Gala goes virtual, meal still included

Each year Winnipeg's self-funded Chaplain hosts a Pro Sports & Faith Night fundraiser, but this year it'll be done virtually. 

The fundraising gala is often a chance to meet a lot of the players like Scheifele and Stegall, share a meal with them, and hear them talk about their faith. It's also a fundraiser for Lorne Korol's ministry, the Chaplain to the Winnipeg Jets, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and Manitoba Moose.

"Like many organizations, due to COVID, we are forced to pivot with our gala. Last year we were really blessed, we had 440 guests at the Hotel Fort Garry, but this year we weren't able to gather in person," says Korol.

Korol is looking to put on a fun event, even though guests can't meet face-to-face.

"When you come to a good gala, you always get a good meal. We are blessed to have partnered with Earls on Main, and they're going to be providing all of our guests with a wonderful meal delivered right to their door."

While the term gala goes hand-in-hand with dressing for the occasion, this year's virtual event's theme is what Korol calls "Jersey casual".

"Once you're enjoying your meal the event will start at 7:00 pm. We'll have a wide variety of guests including Mark Chipman, Mark Scheifele, Coach Richie Hall, a number of Jets and Bombers and of course the legendary Milt Stegall is going to close it for us."

Normally, the gala has an auction right at the event that offers some great giveaways that people can hope to win that night. 

"This year we're able to do an online auction and we're going to run it for two weeks leading up to November 7."

Prizes include traditional hockey and football prizes like signed jerseys, as well as a helicopter ride, winter getaway, paintings, a Fortnite experience with one of the Jets players, and a Gimli speedway racing package.

For his job as Chaplain, Korol usually meets with players every two weeks. However, at the start of COVID-19, the groups of players wanted to meet more than that, changing it to every week.

"We went 13 weeks straight with them, and they were committed and grew closer to each other because of uncertainty, but also grew closer to God."

Korol was able to do a one-on-one discipleship during the pandemic with Mark Sheifele. 

"My job has basically gone virtual over the past couple of months with my team doing Zoom calls and Google hangouts."

The virtual sports and faith gala will take place on November 7 and tickets are selling for $100. CHVN's own Mike Thom will be MCing the event once again.