Oakville needs your help to bring Winnipeg Jets Alumni to their community

This year's Winnipeg Jets Town Takeover contest has been narrowed down to three communities, one of which is Oakville. 

Greg Burnett is a teacher at Oakville school and is known by many as the biggest Jets fan in the world. Burnett has a basement shrine dedicated to the Jets with jerseys hung up in what looks like a locker room area.

Greg Burnett in his basement.

He is a season ticket holder and says he was notified about this town takeover contest and thought Oakville would be the perfect place to bring the event.

"Essentially, the Jets put it out there for a small community where the (winner) has Jets Alumni visit and (the mascots) Benny and Mickey will come out. I believe they play a game against the kids on the ice, and I think they come to the school and get a floor hockey game going with some of the kids," Burnett explains. "There's also going to be a watch party on April 11, where it's going to be like a social atmosphere but as a community, we'll watch the Jets take on the Minnesota Wild with the Jets Alumni. Prizes will be thrown out, and some little things like that."

Burnett says they had to create a video submission to enter this contest, for which he gives all the credit to his fellow teacher Ashley Tully. He is now holding up his end of the bargain by promoting this contest as much as possible to try and bring the Jets Alumni to Oakville.

vote for Oakville here

The mega fan wants to spread his passion to the youth of Oakville and thinks this will do just that.

"I'm a huge Jet fan, and I recognize their value and how important they are to the community in Winnipeg but they're also incredibly important to the province of Manitoba. They're our home team, and I'm a big supporter of always promoting our home team in any sport or activity," Burnett continues. "It might be selfish but it's just another way to share and spread my passion for the Jets."

Burnett believes this would mean the world to some of the young hockey players and even non-hockey players in the Oakville community.

"I know the younger kids, especially, would be so pumped because they come to me, and tell me about what happened (in the Jets game) last night. They'll come to me and say, "Look at my shirt today. It's a Jets shirt.' If we would, I would get them up to speed with the alumni players that would be coming," says Burnett. "Just to bring the former pros to the town would be a great thing and a great way to get the entire community together."

The teacher notes it would be a great experience for the entire school. He says the older kids often, jokingly, say they don't like the Jets to try to get under Burnett's skin but if they're the winners of the contest that could make them as big of fans as he is.

Burnett notes they've been getting the students to vote as much as possible.

"Every day until October 28. We tell them to come in, grab a laptop, vote, and then put it back."

The entirety of Oakville school is pushing hard for the opportunity for their town to be taken over by the Winnipeg Jets, and you can lend them a helping hand daily until October 28 by clicking here and voting for Oakville.

The die-hard Jets fan says Oakville shares a lot of similarities with the Jets.

"Oakville, I've been telling the kids, we embody what the Jets are, and that is a small market city. When you look at Beausejour and Morden, we are by far the smallest community. So, we want to get everyone in Portage to help us out by voting as much as they can as well."