Yesterday, I hosted my third annual hockey scrimmage to support the LGBT Center’s HIV/AIDS Services, which is the beneficiary for Cycle for the Cause. My hockey friends continue to show tremendous support for this and I am so appreciative of that support. Between the people that came out and played and those who donated but could not play, $1,470 was raised. After reading a tweet about that, the good folks who run PuckBuddys threw in the additional $30 to top out the scrimmage amount to an even $1,500.
Thanks to these folks who participated and contributed: Alex, Scott, Robin, Igor, Roman, John, Matt, Elizabeth, Mike, Susanna, Bill G., Jason, Dave W., Bill W., Dave A., Leif, Julia, Steve, Bob, Linda, Rich W., Andrew, Kevin, Jax, Jeff G., Vickie, Skyler, Paul, John, Rich P., Rich S. and PuckBuddys.com. Tremendous thanks also to Sky Rink for the donation of the ice time.
Over the past three years now, this scrimmage has raised more than $4,500 for the critical services the Center provides .
For this year, the scrimmage total gets me over half way to my $4k goal. Counting scrimmage donations that aren’t reflected in my rider account yet, I’m at $2,266 (53% of my goal).
I’m excited to be past the half-way point and it’s not even June yet. Ideally I can blow past the $4k mark I’ve set and get closer to $5k. You can help me do that by donating online today! It’s quick and easy and every little bit helps!
More on the scrimmage: This was one of the most fun scrimmage’s I’ve played in. We had a fairly wide range of skills represented–from developmental players up to people who play in D3/D4. I’d been a little worried about that disparity leading up to the scrimmage, but it all worked out great. There were enough upper level players that they could be evenly split between the teams. Plus, everyone played well together. I loved seeing some of the level players make great plays with the upper players on their own teams, as well as watching lower level players occasionally strip opposing upper level players of the puck.
Three things, outside the money earned, made this scrimmage an awesome experience for me:
1) Seeing Vickie back in net. She hasn’t played goalie in a long while and was interested to get back in the pads for the scrimmage. She mades some phenomenal saves. It was great to see her have a good game.
2) A mini-Ronnie’s Ice reunion happened with Roman, Igor and Mike playing. It was great to see them and share the ice with them again. I played on the same team as Roman and Igor and since they played D and I was a center we shared the ice together on several shifts. Roman set me up for a couple of sweet goals (actually he and Igor set me up for more than two, but I only got two in).
3) Seeing everyone play so well together. It seemed like everyone had a great time, playing with people they knew and getting to meet some new people too. It was a good way to spend a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon.
