TORONTO – The Manitoulin Panthers’ bid to secure the Good Deeds Cup had a good run, but when the regional finalists were announced on Saturday, January 25 it was the Mississauga Terriers Peewee AA team that captured the opportunity.
The Mississauga Terriers held a hockey equipment drive for immigrant children in their community and taught them how to play Canada’s sport, hockey.
Members of the Manitoulin Panthers Peewee team were not disheartened by the result, however, secure in the knowledge that they had accomplished much of what they set out to do in raising funds for the annual Manitoulin Family Resources food bank and the annual Christmas food basket drive.
“Scot Hughson and his team, along with the Ducks team of the Toronto area, have raised approximately $6,000 plus food items for our local food bank,” said MFR executive director Marnie Hall. “The efforts, community support and activism on this Island by people of all ages is incredibly heartwarming and simply phenomenal. I don’t know that you would find this anywhere else.”
“We had a good run,” said Mr. Hughson following the announcement of the regional finalists. “The team isn’t upset or anything—they know they did good.”
In the lead-up to Christmas, members of the Manitoulin Panthers team gathered at Orr’s Valu-mart in Little Current to help pack and carry groceries for the store’s customers. They also set up a cultural exchange with a team from southern Ontario, through the auspices of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association.
Unfortunately, the rules of the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup do not allow for two teams to submit a joint entry to the competition, but the Avenue Road Ducks, a team of Jewish hockey players from the Toronto area set up a GoFundMe page and went about collecting food donations in their own communities to assist with the effort. Nine of the 17-member team came to Manitoulin to visit the Panthers bringing those donations along with them.
While here, both teams learned a great deal about their respective traditions and culture.
The Manitoulin Panthers created a five-minute video highlighting their efforts and submitted it to the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup competition.
The Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup program seeks to inspire young Canadians to do good by transforming the positive values learned through hockey into good deeds within their communities. Along with Hockey Canada, Chevrolet’s goal is to develop hockey players on and off the ice.
After the submissions deadline is past, Hockey Canada and Chevrolet, along with the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup Ambassadors, review each entry to determine the regional finalists. Canadians across the nation then get their chance to vote for the top three before an expert panel decides which of the final three deserves to be crowned champion.
The videos from each of the provincial finalists can be viewed online at Chevrolet.ca/en/good-deeds-cup/regional-finalists and then voted on to help select the top three national finalists.
Voting will be open until February 9. The winner will be able to select a charity of their choice to receive $100,000.
