The other day I wrote “Who Fights Cancer in a Lockout?” at Overtime, noting that should the lockout cancel games in October, it also cancels the biggest charity initiative of the NHL season, “Hockey Fights Cancer” (HFC). This means that the league, the players, and the fans won’t take part in the league-wide initiative, resulting in about $1 million not going to cancer charities this year.
Well if the NHL won’t do it, and the NHLPA can’t do it, then we the fans should.
To that end, I’ve created a grassroots fundraising team with the Livestrong Foundation entitled “Hockey Fans Fight Cancer.”
100 % of donations go to Livestrong.
100 % of donations go straight to Livestrong, meaning your donation never changes hands except from you to them.
Charity & foundation watchdog CharityWatch ranks Livestrong among the highest cancer charities operating today so you can trust your donation is being put to good use.
The lockout means plenty of leftover hockey-related revenue. All I’m asking is a donation of $1 to $5 per fan.
To visit the team page or to make a donation, click HERE.
The URL is: http://laf.livestrong.org/goto/HFFC
The NHL can afford to act leisurely. Cancer patients cannot. As a cancer care advocate for people diagnosed with blood disorders, and as someone who has lost somebody close to me to cancer, I can vouch for that reality. If you prefer to donate to another charity, like Susan G. Komen or Prostate Cancer Canada or the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, please do.
This is a chance to show the world that the bottom-line driven, fan-neglected choices made by NHL ownership don’t define us as a fan base.
Signed,
Ross Bonander, hockey fan
The promotion will continue…its such a great cause regardless of what happens with the CBA.
This is why I’m encouraging very small individual donations D’Ann. If the lockout ended tomorrow and games were scheduled in October and HFC actually occurs, that would be fantastic. It would also be immaterial here. I don’t presuppose any single person opposes the notion of a transparently run anti-cancer fundraiser driven by hockey fans, so I wouldn’t expect any blowback from either the league or individual teams, regardless of their future plans, only support and encouragement from them.
This is why I’m encouraging very small individual donations D’Ann. If the lockout ended tomorrow and games were scheduled in October and HFC actually occurs, that would be fantastic. It would also be immaterial here. I don’t presuppose any single person opposes the notion of a transparently run anti-cancer fundraiser driven by hockey fans, so I wouldn’t expect any blowback from either the league or individual teams, regardless of their future plans, only support and encouragement from them.
Not disagreeing with your efforts at all, just sharing some information as to what is going on in the League regarding Hockey Fights Cancer and noting the official league partners that will suffer financially if October games are cancelled. I personally support LiveStrong outside of my job with the Stars as well – was at the Swing4Yellow dinner Sunday night here in Dallas!
Thanks a lot for sharing this with us D’Ann – we appreciate you coming by and (obviously) hope that everything gets back on track soon. In the meantime we’ll (The Hockey Writers) be trying to help out with Ross’ initiative.
While Hockey Fights Cancer games will not be rescheduled as a league if the lockout forces cancellation of all October games, I have been told that many teams (including the Dallas Stars) will be working with their local contacts from NHL partners for this night – LLS, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and Movember, as well as their local partners – Dallas works with the Mary Crowley Cancer Research Center and Heroes for Children to have additional fundraising nights later in the season. As of right now, no regular season games have been cancelled and the Stars are still planning on their scheduled Hockey Fights Cancer Night on October 18 – details can be found at: http://stars.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=82813.