The Town of Langenburg held a hot dog sale on Thursday, June 22nd which resulted in nearly $20,000 being raised for the new arena fund.
The idea for the $100 hot dog sale came from Elyce Wilson of RE/MAX Blue Chip Realty as part of their Community Salute Tour. Elyce attended an arena upgrade committee meeting in Langenburg and the idea grew from there.
Lindsay Villeneuve, with GX94, and Town of Langenburg councillor Rodney Lundgren (also the fire chief) were busy cooks during the infamous $100 hot dog fundraiser held in Langenburg on June 22nd.
The RE/MAX Community Salute Tour has been through multiple communities in Southeast Saskatchewan over the last couple of months in an effort to get back into the community and help raise funds for groups that have seen a lack of attention in recent years.
Wilson mentioned, “Langenburg was the perfect candidate for the $100 hot dog promotion. This community really pulls together for the better good and focuses all of their efforts on a common goal, in this case, the arena. The best part of this whole project is we didn’t have to call anyone. Langenburg showed up all on their own and offered their support 100% on their own accord. That’s amazing.”
The town created the “Langenburg Rumour Mill”, which simulated an article on the front page of a newspaper, to share the comedic twists regarding the donations.
“The Mayor Buys $100 Hot Dog” reads the first post the town shared on their Facebook page.
CAO: Psst…Did you hear the news?
People: No, what news?
CAO: The Mayor just bought a $100 hot dog.
People: Why would he do such a thing?
CAO: To support the Langenburg Arena at the ReMax Blue Chip Realty Community Salute Tour.
The article goes on to mention anyone can purchase a $100 hot dog to support the cause, or any donation for that matter.
The second post reads, “EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! THE DEPUTY MAYOR IS JEALOUS OF THE MAYOR’S $100 HOT DOG AND BUYS ONE TOO!”.
The result of the posts motivated residents and companies of Langenburg and surrounding area to join in on the fun.
Town of Langenburg CAO Glenda Lemcke said, “We had close to a $20,000 hot dog sale. Not many places can say that. To date, I think we’ve recorded $19,522 and we still have a few more sales trickling in”.
The hot dog sales began after the idea was presented to the town council, with Mayor Jeremy Stasiuk buying the first $100 hot dog. Then, two other counsellors said they would as well. Everybody who purchased, pre-purchased, or is still purchasing a $100 hot dog gets a little funny headline in the Langenburg Rumour Mill, which seems to have taken off.
Lemcke mentioned, “I expected to sell 30 $100 hot dogs, and the sale is still going on. I had said I was going to quit accepting, but you know, the last few donations that came in have been fairly big donations. That was my goal. 25 to 30 would make me super happy. We sold 119 or something like that.”
Wallin’s Bigway was generous enough to donate the food for the barbeque.
The funds are for the new arena in town which was announced on GX 94 at the barbeque.
The location for the new arena has not been made public yet.
Elyce Wilson highlighted that the RE/MAX Community Salute Tour has raised over $32,590 for this area with Langenburg claiming well over half.