Hockey Helps Kids Returns for Third NHL Season
Applications for the Third NHL Season of Hockey Helps Kids are now open
(Edmonton, AB) – Hockey Helps Kids, the philanthropic initiative of Chloe and Harrison Katz, children of Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) Chairman Daryl Katz and his wife Renee, is a fun and innovative charity competition which brings together local schools and the Edmonton Oilers to raise awareness and funds for a variety of local charities.
The Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation (EOCF) is excited to announce that applications for schools to participate in Year 3 of the Hockey Helps Kids program for the 2017-18 National Hockey League (NHL) season are now open.
Hockey Helps Kids helps strengthen the relationship between the NHL, communities, fans and most importantly, helps junior high school students understand the importance of helping make their community a better place.
Building off of the program’s inaugural success, this past season saw the second year of Hockey Helps Kids experience significant growth and momentum in the Edmonton community. In its second year, a total of 89,808 votes were cast within a one-month voting window, which more than doubled last year’s results. This year, four Edmonton Oilers players — Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Milan Lucic — once again teamed up with four junior high schools within Edmonton to help captain the teams and lead the way as positive role models.
Team Father Michael Troy, and their Hockey Helps Kids Team Captain Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, pulled away with the most votes and won the Hockey Helps Kids Charity Cup, winning $25,000 for their charity of choice, Sport Central. Sport Central is a local non-profit that provides affordable sports equipment for families and children with the desire to be involved in minor league sports.
“We want to thank the schools and students that participated in year two of Hockey Helps Kids and wish the new schools applying for year three good luck,” said Chloe. “It was amazing to see the program grow through the hard work, passion and creativity of the students involved. They learned so many life lessons and now they want to continue to participate in charitable work for the rest of their lives.”
Harrison explains how Hockey Helps Kids is truly unique.
“Hockey Helps Kids is an exciting initiative harnessing the power of hockey to engage young people in making their community a better place,” said Harrison. “It was so cool to see how excited the students were to be involved with their charities, and it was great to see the results as we doubled the amount of votes compared to last year and they really got involved as a community.”
Once the four new schools have been selected, next season, students will once again engage in research, interviews and data collection to select their charity of choice in year three, and will team up with an Edmonton Oilers player who will again serve as the team’s captain. Each team will continue with the prominent success of being tasked with creating a two-minute video pitch with the aim of promoting their charity to solicit online votes and awareness with the goal of garnering the most votes during the voting period. The winning school in year three of Hockey Helps Kids will receive $25,000 and the three runner-ups will each receive a $10,000 donation to their charity of choice.