Leave it to the sports pages to provide inspiration. This past weekend the inaugural Hot Karl Memorial Hockey Tournament dominated the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.
Leave it to the sports pages to provide inspiration.
This past weekend the inaugural Hot Karl Memorial Hockey Tournament dominated the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.
“A hockey tournament inspirational? ” you may be saying.
Read on.
The event served not only as a tribute to Karl Hetze, who tragically passed away earlier this year, but also to raise funds for the Alberta Cancer Society.
Buy-in, pun intended, was off the charts.
The tournament managed to raise just under $5,000, which is exceptional.
The Canadian Cancer Society, which includes the Alberta chapter, is a national, community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is the eradication of cancer and the enhancement of the quality of life of people living with cancer.
Today, over 60 per cent of Canadians diagnosed with cancer will survive at least five years after their diagnosis -in the 1940s, survival was about 25 per cent.
In 2014-2015, the Canadian Cancer Society funded $44 million in leading-edge research supporting more than 400 projects across the country. They are the leading charitable funder of cancer research in Canada.
They're a worthy cause.
Ultimately it's events like this one that show off the true community spirit of Athabasca.
Selling a hockey tournament in September can be tough sledding. Folks can be hard pressed to venture back to an arena while temperatures are still in the positive teens.
But organizers obviously didn't have any trouble finding enough players to commit to the weekend-long tourney.
Talking about the event, Tanner Chamberlain summed it up nicely when asked about the unique trophies handed out to the winning team -Chamberlain is one of the founders of the first-time event.
“It's not really about that; we're here just for fun and to play some hockey. ”
Have fun, play some hockey and raise money for a great cause.
You can't ask for much more than that.
