Alumni game raises money for Neepawa Health Centre

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Published on Friday, February 27, 2015

Pictured L to R:  Brooke de Koning, Kianna Dowd, Aalyia Clark, Jocelyn Scheper Care team manager of the Neepawa Health Centre, Hayley Cathcart and Shalyn Laflar. Photo by Eoin Devereux

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner

The Neepawa Health Centre is the beneficiary of some welcome support from the Neepawa midget girls hockey team. The current team, along with several former players, were able to raise $400.00 for the facility, through an alumni game, held on Dec. 27, at the Yellowhead Arena.

Jocelyn Scheper, Care Team manager of the Neepawa Health Centre, said they appreciate the ongoing support they receive from the community. Scheper noted this game was another example of that.

“It’s wonderful to receive these donations from groups within Neepawa,” said Scheper. “These donations go towards our chemotherapy donation foundation and the money is used to better the experience that patients have when they come to the Neepawa unit. So, it’s very nice that people do these fundraisers for us. Just wish to give a huge thank you to everyone that was involved for their support.”

Midget team coach Dave Clark said he and the players were very pleased with the response from the community on this effort. 

“It’s the third one that we’ve done. How it started was that over the Christmas break, when the girls are home from college and university. There was an ice slot open three years ago and I couldn’t find a team to play my midget team, so what we did was, I got my daughter, who was an alumni to round up some girls who had played in Neepawa previously, to form a team and play my current midget team. That’s how it started,” said Clark.  “[In 2013], we did it again, and [in 2014] we upped the ante a little bit. We actually brought a set of jerseys with the breast cancer ribbon, as a logo on them. We did this with the help of Pat Guilbert of Home Hardware and myself. We managed to purchase a set of jerseys for the alumni, so they could wear it on an ongoing basis. And, we managed to raise $400.00. I believe the 50/50 draw was about $100.00 and it was won by Brad Walker and he donated it back to the cause, which was great.”

Clark said they decided to assist the Health Centre with this fundraising effort because for many of his current and former players, their families has a connection to cancer. 

“This the first year that we’ve actually done [a fundraising component]. The girls that have graduated have been affected by cancer. Breast cancer especially. So, the girls thought that that would be a good charity to give it to,” said Clark. “We wanted it earmarked for the chemo unit here in Neepawa to allow them to purchase whatever may be needed to make the persons’ experience  while taking chemo a little bit easier.”

Clark also noted that many of the players are hopeful this will turn into an annual tradition.

“It all turned out pretty well. We had good support from the alumni. I think we’ve had 16 former players that have played hockey over the past four, or five and even six years that have participated. And my current team really enjoy playing the game,” said Clark. “The former players, who have gone on to college and university, they really look forward to coming home over the Christmas break and being able to get together with their old teammates and have a game of hockey. And helping out a good cause is just that extra motivation.”