George Arcand
George Arcand arrived in Whitehorse in the late 1960s. He played in a fastpitch league at FH Collins and after that at several other temporary locations. In the late 1970s, Arcand and a core group of softballers were looking for a permanent home. They wanted a self-contained complex with washrooms, concessions and a beer garden. By 1983, the Takhini Park was in place and hosted the first tournament. The Kiwanis Club built the concession stand and ran it until they made their money back. Over time the club added bleachers, a new concession stand, sundeck and batter cages. A new facility came along as big annual events, like Dustball, became summer mainstays. Arcand was the first full-time paid employee of Softball Yukon and worked to make Yukon a player. He served on the board of Softball Canada, worked as a liaison between Softball Canada and the national team, traveling to the Pan-Am games in 1987 where his team took the gold, and on the 1988 World Championships where they took bonze. Since then, Whitehorse has hosted more than thirty national championships including the Western Masters Fastball Championships in 2006. In 2007, there were over 1,000 registered adult softball players in the Yukon. Arcand entered the Softball Canada Hall of Fame in 2007.1) He was inducted into the Sport Yukon Hall of Fame in 1996. In 2009, Arcand received the Community Service Prestige Award from the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance for his years of dedication in the sports community.2)