Friday night lights and 1,700 burgers fuel Trail-Rossland Winter Games<\/p>\n
Published 9:00 pm Friday, February 27, 2026<\/p>\n
Organizing 15 sports venues across four rural communities is no small task.<\/p>\n
But figuring out how to feed nearly 1,000 hungry teenage athletes, along with their coaches and officials, after a full day of competition?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an entirely different ballgame.<\/p>\n
By 3 p.m. Friday, the operation was already underway outside the Trail Memorial Centre in the Cominco parking lot.<\/p>\n
Volunteers were in position, grills were heating up and the scent of barbecue was starting to drift through the air.<\/p>\n
By 5 p.m., they were ready.<\/p>\n
Feeding approximately 1,350 Trail-Rossland BC Winter Games guests \u2014 including 974 athletes \u2014 takes planning, precision and a small army of volunteers.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, this is a crew that has raised funds and fed crowds for years, and they brought that well-honed rhythm to the Games.<\/p>\n
First stop on the food tour: the outdoor grills, where volunteers from the Trail Legion were flipping an estimated 1,700 burgers.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t hard to find.<\/p>\n
The distinct aroma of barbecue drifting through the parking lot pointed the way.<\/p>\n
Then, inside the iconic Trail Memorial Centre \u2014 home to the Cominco Arena and the Trail Smoke Eaters \u2014 the scene shifted from food prep to full-on Friday night energy.<\/p>\n
Up the stairs and into the arena, the floor had been transformed into a games and activity zone.<\/p>\n
Play stations were set up to help athletes unwind after competition, along with space to connect with teammates from across the province.<\/p>\n
Just beyond that sat a long merchandise table piled high with Games apparel.<\/p>\n
T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, tank tops, hoodies, leggings, hats and bandanas in just about every colour imaginable.<\/p>\n
Guests could choose their garment, pick from 96 different logo designs and have their selection printed on site before heading back into the crowd.<\/p>\n
From there, guests moved up a few steps to the red floor, surrounded by a gallery of Trail\u2019s finest sports memorabilia.<\/p>\n
In the centre, long banquet tables were set up where burgers were dressed and plates loaded with vegetables and dip before being carried into the Cominco gym.<\/p>\n
The gym can seat up to 400 diners at a time, so as buses arrived loaded with athletes, waves of hungry competitors rotated through the system with surprising efficiency.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a carefully choreographed operation \u2014 part catering, part crowd management \u2014 and one that reflects the scale of the Games themselves.<\/p>\n
More than 1,450 local volunteers are supporting the Trail-Rossland 2026 BC Winter Games, helping ensure that when competition ends for the day, athletes can refuel, relax and enjoy the experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday night lights and 1,700 burgers fuel Trail-Rossland Winter Games Published 9:00 pm Friday, February 27, 2026 Organizing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-505098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}