A group from our region is just returning home from the Grey Cup in Toronto.
The Atlantic Schooners are named after a proposed CFL team in the 80s that never came to be.
The Schooners are made up of 25 or so football fans from Southwestern Nova Scotia.
For the last nine years, they’ve traveled to the Grey Cup host city and put on an East Coast Kitchen Party, complete with lobster.
This year, it was a three day event in downtown Toronto.
Congratulations to the @REDBLACKS on winning the 104th #GreyCup . You may have the greatest upset, but we’re still the #BOAT
— Atlantic Schooners (@MaritimeCFL) November 28, 2016
Schooners member John Ryerson from Lower Wedgeport says their goal is to bring a piece of the east coast to the major event.
“We had three Celtic bands, just an enormous amount of fun, everything you would expect to see at a kitchen party here, but on a very large scale. The room we were in was 28,000 square feet in the Toronto Convention Centre.”
Ryerson says in the past they’ve donated thousands to food banks across Canada.
He says the group works hard every year.
“Probably 26 Yarmouth area people who take time off, fly up, work 14 hours a day and generally jump back on the plane Sunday and fly home. They don’t go to enjoy the football, they go there to work and they are proud to raise money.”
While they didn’t make any money this year, Ryerson still plans to donate $2,500 to the Yarmouth food bank.
