One Burlington boys’ hockey team is making an early bid as a serious challenger to win this year’s Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup.
The Burlington under-13 A Blue rep Eagles are in the midst of competing for the grand prize of $100,000 that Chevrolet is providing to the U11-U15 Hockey Canada-affiliated team which garners the most good deeds documented on social media between Jan. 19 and March 3 this year
The annual challenge has evolved over the years with pandemic restrictions changing the rules the past couple of seasons.
Coming up to the halfway point of the challenge, early results have the Eagles in second place overall.
Ai-Ri Brown, co-manager of the Eagles team, said those numbers are encouraging.
“We have over 250 good deeds so far,” said Brown. “Last year’s winner finished with 343.”
To earn a point, a good deed video must be submitted on public social media (the Eagles use Instagram) with the proper hashtags to be eligible. The good deed must be beneficial to anyone or group other than the Eagles’ team members and family. A good deed is worth one point only no matter how many different social media outlets in appears on.
What makes the endeavour extra special is where the Eagles team will donate their winnings. It’s The Gift of Giving Back, a Burlington effort that in the past two decades has blossomed into the largest annual food bank drive in the country. It started as a project by Jean Longfield and the Eagles. So far, the effort has resulted in 4.6 million pounds of food being collected since 2005.
“It was always the intent to give any winnings to the Gift of Giving Back,” said Brown. “Jean’s idea for it was to instill the values of giving back to the community, which lines up nicely with Chevrolet’s values for this."
Players on the Eagles team were enthusiastic to take part after a few post-practice meetings were held to discuss possible participation. Their good deeds include anything from shovelling driveways and raking lawns, offering free cups of coffee and picking up garbage. The team is encouraging readers to help out by doing a good deed of their own and sending the social media address to the Eagles at [email protected].
We stressed to (the players) that you have to do this for the right reasons,” said Brown. “One of the moms on the team led a really great meeting. Kids came up with many good reasons for wanting to do this.”
One of the opportunities for the players to record good deeds is coming on Saturday, Feb. 24, at a used hockey equipment collection sponsored by Their Opportunity. It runs from 9 a.m.- 2 p.m. at the Appleby Ice Centre. The donations are transferred and distributed to indigenous organizations in northern Ontario. Hockey sticks, shin pads, pants, gloves, helmets, elbow pads, skates, shoulder pads and bags are the items needed.
They also ask those donating to leave undergarments, socks, jerseys, jocks, neck guards and goalie equipment at home. They’re not needed.
It was also stressed to the Eagles players that they’re winners no matter if they don’t collect the Good Deeds $100,000 prize because of the valuable life lessons learned in the process.
The Eagles were one of the first 150 teams to register for this year’s Cup contest, so they’ll receive some Good Deed Cup gear from Chevrolet.
Members of the team include Owen Laginski, Tyler Rutherford, Gavyn Ryan, Jack Runham, Cole Fegan, Harrison Currie, Theo Janes, Simon Hall, Heaton Brouwer, Noah Perfect, Caleb Sylvia, Taylor Wilkins, Logan Brown, Andrew Volpe, Nicholas Tollis, Nathan Um and Jeremy Foster, coaches Clint Ryan, Chris Rutherford and Jon Currie and trainer Trevor Hall.
