Team McDavid (Killarney School) wins Charity Cup Challenge
(Edmonton, AB) – The votes are in! Killarney School, captained by Oilers forward Connor McDavid, has won $25,000 for the Zebra Child Protection Centre in the inaugural Hockey Helps Kids Charity Cup Challenge. A total of 44,649 votes were cast in the 28-day voting period, with the team-lead fluctuating consistently throughout.
“Congratulations to Team McDavid and Killarney School for winning the first Charity Cup Challenge. It was amazing to see the support across our community for Hockey Helps Kids,” said Harrison Katz. “Thank you to all four schools and our four team captains for getting involved and working to make our community a better place. Everyone should be incredibly proud of their effort.”
The philanthropic initiative of Chloe and Harrison Katz, Hockey Helps Kids was launched at the beginning of the school year to raise awareness and funds for a variety of local charities and strengthen the relationship between the Oilers and the community.
Through research, interviews and the collection of data, each participating school was tasked with selecting a local non-profit organization to support. With help from their Oilers captain, the schools developed a video pitch for fans to vote on.
“We were really impressed with the amount of research and work the students put into their videos,” said Chloe Katz. “The videos were very powerful and it was so great to see the energy from all the teams cheering at Rexall Place when we announced that voting had begun at the end of February.”
As part of their video, Killarney shared the story of the Zebra Child Protection Centre – a place of healing, support and justice for children who have been abused and a resource for non-offending parents or caregivers. The funds won by Killarney will be directed to the child support services program, including the centre’s backpack initiative which provides children with clothes and hygiene supplies.
Along with raising funds for their charity of choice, Team McDavid will also get the opportunity to attend the Oilers vs. Flames game on April 2.
While Killarney may have walked away with the fan-vote, students from A. Blair McPherson (Team Hall), Florence Hallock (Team Nugent-Hopkins) and Riverbend (Team Eberle) will also walk away winners, earning $10,000 each for the Ronald McDonald House Northern Alberta, iHuman Youth Society and Edmonton Public School Foundation. In addition to the charities, all four schools will also receive $5,000 for their hard work and community outreach efforts.
For more information on Hockey Helps Kids and to view the winning video, please visit HockeyHelpsKids.com