Regular Joes and former pros: Hockey Helps the Homeless fundraiser returns to the Maritimes

Hockey Helps the Homeless Crystal Garrett gets the details on a hockey tournament that has players hitting the ice for a great cause.

Hockey Helps the Homeless is hosting the fifth annual edition of the fundraising hockey tournament this week in the Maritimes.

The event features teams of former hockey professionals and local players, playing together to raise money for charitable organizations that help people in need of housing.

Hockey Helps the Homeless started in 1996, with Mike Gartner as the first professional athlete to participate. It has since grown to 22 tournaments across Canada.

Game day in the Maritimes is Friday night at the RBC Centre in Dartmouth, N.S.

“Tonight we do our draft where we pick our pro and then we get to enjoy a little bit of the fun with them tonight and then (we’re) on the ice tomorrow,” said event organizer Don Murray during an interview with CTV Morning Live Atlantic on Thursday.

Murray added there will be plenty of names people will recognize from the hockey world, including Brad May, Rick Vaive, Cam Rusell, Paul MacLean and James Shepard.

“We’ve got a number of pros that are flying in, mostly from Ontario and abroad … a lot of names that have played recently and some not so recently,” he said.

All net proceeds from the local event will support two charities, one being Adsum for Women and Children.

Fund development officer Kathy McNab says while Adsum started as a shelter, it is now involved in the housing industry as well.

“We have seven locations around the city and also we work with landlords to help get people housed. At this minute, we have 150 people, including 95 children living in hotel rooms, and we’re trying to get them into permanent housing,” she said.

“And with each family there tends to be some hurdle. It’s either power, an extra month’s rent, security deposit, moving furniture, things like that.”

Adsum receives one-time financial payments from the annual Hockey Helps the Homeless tournaments.

“This past year, we’ve spent so far, for 10 months, $312,000. And for the last four years that we’ve been a recipient of the money with Hockey Helps the Homeless in Halifax, they have paid one-third of those bills for us,” McNab said.

“It really is incredible. And the money raised this year will just help us do even more over the winter months.”

McNab said the housing crisis in Halifax has “gone crazy” recently.

“I think everybody realizes that. When you’re snuggling in your warm bed at night, there’s people in tents, there’s people on couches, people living in unsafe situations and we have 700 people right now we’re supporting at Adsum every single say, including people in our own housing that we own,” she said.

“We’re in the middle of building another building, so there’s a lot of ways you can help out in the homeless community, and also in advocating for making housing more available for people that is affordable, safe and secure.”

VETS Canada is also a recipient of Hockey Helps the Homeless donations each year.

“They were our founding beneficiary, they support the military and the RCMP, people that are struggling with homelessness and maybe need to get over those hurdles as well,” Murray said.

Murray noted more than 70 volunteers signed up to help with this year’s event.

“Team captains are big because they recruit players. And then, of course, donating – the biggest thing we need is more support corporately. If we can use the corporate donations to help cover the infrastructure of the tournament then all of our fundraising can go directly to beneficiaries, which is really the goal.”

Murray said anybody who wants to know more about Hockey Helps the Homeless or wants to get involved can visit their website.

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