Houghton County Arena Dedicating Banquet Room To Wiitnanen
At the core of this devotion, will be the disclosing of various privately created wooden cases that will show vintage prizes and other hockey memorabilia.
"Uncle Dave had been needing to get the prizes (as old as 1935) in cases and in plain view for quite a long time," said Wiitanen's niece Rhonda Britten. "Alongside the memorabilia, there will be five major banner/montages recounting the tale of nearby hockey. The Houghton County Board was behind it 100%. It was simply an issue of completing it."
Britten added that a major stimulus to completing this venture was the way that her uncle turned out to be extremely wiped out in the spring of this current year. She alongside Wiitanen's little girl Donna Watson set to attempt to carry this task to culmination.
"We couldn't say whether he was going to live or bite the dust," Britten said. "I didn't need it be fixed in the event that he passed. My uncle has given 50 years to junior hockey, and it turned into our main goal to have his heritage live on."
Among Wiitanen's numerous achievements was the formation of the Copper Country Junior Hockey Association, which has since produced different school and expert hockey players at different levels.