COLUMN: Carillon Flashback June 30, 1993 – 1993 MSOS Games seen as a great success

Everyone involved in the 1993 MSOS 55 Plus Games in Steinbach agreed the week-long event was a great success.

With more than 1,400 competitors registered, a record number, and as many as 2,000 people a day converging on Steinbach, the impact was certainly felt in the community.

From as young as 55 years old to 94-year-old cribbage player Bill Wilson of Winnipeg, the “young and old” and the “young at heart” all enjoyed themselves.

The chairman of the Steinbach organizing committee, Rollie Blanchard, said except for a few minor glitches, the games went off without a hitch.

Blanchard feels that many residents of Steinbach were surprised at what a large event the games actually were. The games attracted the largest number of competitors in its 11-year history and the parade to open the games on Tuesday morning was one of the largest ever.

“It proves Steinbach can host a large event quite successfully.”

The games chairman was pleased with all the venues, including the carpet bowling in Mitchell and cribbage in La Broquerie. Blanchard says the host committee decided to include Mitchell and La Broquerie because those two communities are so closely linked with Steinbach, and had excellent facilities to offer.

There were scheduling problems at some of the events, because participants would enter three or four events, and because of a scheduling conflict, could not show up for all of the events they signed up for.

Highlights for the Eastman team in the MSOS Games included two gold medals in swimming for Steinbach’s Jocelyn Majure, a second place finish in snooker for Eastman’s Albert Villoux, a win in Class C Women’s horseshoes by Lillian Lansard and a victory in carpet bowling by the Carl Vincent team.

The Eastman athletes also did quite well on the golf course. Robert Sequin shot a 78 to win the men’s 55-62 18-hole category by a stroke over a Central Plains golfer and bettered by two strokes Ernie Klassen of Pembina Valley. In the 63-70 category, Joseph Nespar of Eastman shot a 75, only to lose by a single stroke. Winnie Hudson was second in the 9-hole 63-70 women’s golf competition.

Steinbach restaurants and the Steinbach campground were extremely busy during the games.

The Steinbach campground, opened in 1990 for the World Mennonite Conference, was finally used to its capacity, campground operator Jared Harder said.

Steinbach mayor Wes Reimer said it was a very good week from a business perspective and would like to see Steinbach host the games again in the future.

Of course, as expected, restaurants enjoyed a brisk trade all week, but all Steinbach merchants enjoyed a busy week, with the huge crowd of participants doing a little shopping between events. One participant, a woman from Dauphin, purchased a new car from Penner Chev-Olds while she was here, the mayor said.

The mayor was pleased with the efforts of volunteers and town staff in contributing to the success of the games, but disappointed with Winnipeg media for all but ignoring the event.

“I find it difficult to understand how they could ignore an event that involved 1,400 participants.”

– with files from Terry Frey