By John Humphrey
The much-anticipated 2023 version of Play for a Cure will be held at the Vollmer Centre in LaSalle on April 13-14 and while the event has been around for five years, next month’s Cancer fundraising extravaganza will be just the third time that participants will be lacing up their skates as the event was – pardon the pun – on ice for two years.
Play for a Cure is a unique fundraising event that. It is the brainchild of Jeff Casey of Windsor, himself a Cancer survivor who is also the All proceeds from Play for a Cure the Cancer Research Collaboration Fund.
“All of our funds raised remain in Windsor-Essex,” said Casey, who doubles as both the event founder and Event Director. “That is an amazing goal to achieve and we are very proud of that as we are helping not only local patients and their friends and families, but local researchers, who are doing such an incredible job.”
“We had our first event in 2019 and we had it planned again for 2020 but had to cancel due to COVID and our 2021 plans were also cancelled due to the Pandemic,” explained Play for a Cure founder and Event Director Jeff Casey. “But we did come back last year in 2022 and it went off very well because there was such a long build-up to it.
“So, while this is our fifth year for Play for a Cure, it is actually our third event,” he continued to further clarify.
The two-day Play for a Cure 2023 event will kick off with a draft party on Thursday night, April 13 where teams of fundraisers will draft a former National Hockey League player to play on their teams. The draft order is according to how much the teams have raised with the team that has raised the most money having the first overall pick of the NHL alumni players.
On Friday, April 14th teams will skate with their pros during a friendly round robin tournament. Points will be awarded for wins, fundraising and fair play.
The 2022 version of Play for a Cure followed the blueprint from the inaugural event in 2019 and that game plan is being followed again next month. A draft party where the teams who have raised funds draft former National Hockey League players who will join their teams for a hockey tournament that takes place the following day at the Vollmer Centre.
The 2019 draft party was held at Caesars Windsor before moving over to the St. Clair Centre for the Arts, where it will be held again next month.
Last year’s draft party was emceed by Hockey Night in Canada host Ron McLean and the enthusiasm exhibited by everyone who attended was off the charts, Casey claimed.
“Everyone was super-excited and so happy to be out and about last year,” he said. “You could see the enthusiasm right from the beginning of the night and those emotions carried on through the entire event.
“When we found out that the 2022 event was going to go ahead, we had to make our plans according to the COVID protocols that were in place at the time,” Casey continued.” We were told that we could have only six people at a table and that the tables had to be spaced six-feet apart and masks had to be worn by everyone too.
“We wanted to make sure that everyone had a great time, but we also wanted to make sure that everyone was safe.”
By the time the actual draft party was held, the COVID protocols were reduced or eliminated and Play for a Cure participants were given the option of wearing a mask or not
“It was a super-fun draft party, followed by an amazing day of hockey and everything went off without a hitch,” Casey recalled.” We never missed a beat from our first event and now being able to do it again just a year later, we could not be more excited.”
And there are a couple of new additions to the Play for a Cure schedule of events in 2023.
The Sun Parlour Female Hockey Association is partnering with Play For A Cure to hold a girls skill event – Girls Skills for a Cure- that will be held at the Vollmer Centre on Saturday, April 15. Participants, who must be members of the Sun Parlour Female Hockey Association, will have the extraordinary opportunity to be instructed not only by some of Windsor and Essex County’s most accomplished female coaches but also by some of the world’s best female hockey players, including Ruthven’s Megan Agosta.
“I had been in talks with Meghan for awhile about coming out to participate with us and while she was very interested in joining us, her busy schedule would not allow it,” said Casey. “But then her schedule opened up and she immediately made a commitment to Play for a Cure.”
After receiving Agosta’s commitment, Casey and Play for a Cure organizers were able to connect with both Meghan Booze and Laura Fortino.
Agosta has been a member of the Canadian Women’s National Hockey Team since 2004. She played in four Olympic Winter Games, winning gold in Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010, and Sochi 2014, and silver in Pyeongchang, South Korea (2018)
Bozek is an American hockey player who has played with the United States National Women’s Team and has won two Olympic Silver medals
Fortino made her Olympic debut at Sochi 2014, where she assisted on Marie-Philip Poulin’s overtime winner that gave Canada its fourth straight gold medal in women’s hockey. She then helped Canada win three straight silver medals at the world championships in 2015, 2016 and 2017 before winning Olympic silver in Korea in 2018.
But wait, there’s more in store for Play for a Cure participants in 2023, Casey enthusiastically pointed out.
“We’ve also added two women’s teams (there are eight men’s teams) who will be competing against each other and they re being captained by two amazing ladies – Kathleen Rocheleau and Bonnie Moore,” he said. “They have worked together to create two great teams and balance out the rosters.
New former NHLers who will be participating in Play for a Cure for the first time include Gary Roberts, Chris Thornburn, Colton Orr and Brad May. Those lofty additions are joining returning former NHLers such as local hockey icon Adam Graves, Marty McSorley, Al Iaftrate, Mike Krushelnyski, Tim Taylor, Marty Turco and Michael Leighton
“Play for a Cure is not all about winning hockey games,” Casey offered in summary of the tremendous event that he has worked so tirelessly to transform his dream into a reality. “It’s more about having a great experience while raising funds for a great cause.”
For more information on Play for a Cure, visit www.playforacure.ca
Leave a Reply