The tides of change often move in subtle ways. Which is why it’s important to champion those agents of change when given the opportunity, and that’s exactly what we have been doing with the annual Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner.

The Kinsmen Club of Saskatoon (KCOS) is a non-profit that raises funds for a multitude of causes in the area. The list is long in terms of charities, organizations, and initiatives that Kinsmen assists, but a few of them include Hope Cancer Help Centre, Saskatoon Food Bank, Diabetes Canada, Make-a-Wish Canada, and OUT Saskatoon. They also support care centres to ensure individuals with disabilities have a safe and caring environment to live in, provide hot meals and Christmas hampers to families, and support youth in a variety of ways, including youth sports and medical access to the Kinsmen Children’s Centre.

In short, the impact KCOS has had on their local community, province, and country is immeasurable. And as such, Barbershop is honoured to work with KCOS to help promote and advance their work.

01 — Setting the Stage for Corporate Events

For 61 years, KCOS has held a celebrity fundraising dinner, with all the money raised going toward the charitable organizations that KCOS supports. And for the past seven years, Barbershop has provided video production services for the event, including introduction videos for each of the professional athletes and celebrities, as well as a short doc on the charity game proceeding the dinner, which Barbershop shoots, edits, and delivers in one day, and which showcases the impacts that the athletes and KCOS have had on the community.

“The Kinsmen does amazing work in the city, and we’re big believers in organizations that help the youth of our cities. So, this is our way of contributing to that work they do in a very humble way,” said Barbershop Films Head of Production Adam Kitter.

This year’s event featured three Toronto Blue Jays – Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Alek Manoah, and Jordan Romano – and SportsNet host Jamie Campbell, a regular at the event. Past years have featured athletes such as Doug Gilmour, Martin Brodeur, Ed Belfour, and Cam Neely.

“Barbershop is always open to our ideas. We often give them tight timelines, and they always come through in the end. I’m always throwing curveballs at them, and they always come through in the end,” said Mark Kindrachuk, Chairman of the 2023 KCOS Sports Celebrity Dinner.

“The team at Barbershop really understands what we do at Kinsmen and is generous with their time and invoicing in helping us out with costs. All the money we raise goes directly back into the community, so our relationship with Barbershop is really helpful in that way,” said Kindrachuk.

02 — The Joys of Producing Creative Content

There are countless things that make this project special for us. Foremost, donating our time and services to an organization that makes significant impacts in the community is immensely rewarding. But in addition to that, we have the opportunity to collaborate with SportsNet in acquiring footage to create cinematic moments for the videos, work with legendary sports broadcasters, and have the confidence from KCOS to infuse our creativity and style into the videos.

“One of the fun things about doing these videos – and I really do love working on these videos – is the creative freedom they give us. Every year, we come up with a theme to stylistically tie all the videos together,” said Jordan Bell, lead editor at The Shop.

Creative stylistic themes like video games, comic books, and vintage VHS tapes have elevated the series of videos at an event that deserves the utmost excellence.

Our small, creative contribution has been valuable to KCOS, which is all we can ask for.

“The response is always great. I know the athletes are really surprised when they come to the event and see everything that’s been produced. The Saskatchewan Roughriders, this year, even asked if they could use the highlight reels for their own use,” said Kindrachuk.

Additionally, the footage shot during the charity game and KCOS Sports Celebrity Dinner will be used for a CTV SportsNet national broadcast, highlighting the charity work of some of the professional athletes.

“We couldn’t be happier with everything and are glad Barbershop is there to help make this event possible,” said Kindrachuk.