The U18 Eastman Selects female team is holding a special fundraiser game called Hockey Fights Cancer on November 5 at the Niverville CRRC. The event will take place at 3:45 p.m. and coincide with the team’s game against the Pembina Valley Hawks. Gate admission as well as the proceeds from a 50/50 sale, silent auction, and bake sale will all be donated to CancerCare Manitoba.
Team manager Sheri Fast is excited to help present this game to the community and invites everyone to come out for a great game.
“This should be a great game!” says Fast. “We lost to them in the last match, so our girls will be looking for a win.”
Fast is also excited to see the team getting more involved in the community. When the players realized how many of them shared a connection to a cancer story, they made the decision to try to raise funds for CancerCare, specifically breast cancer research.
“Pretty much everyone on our team has been affected by cancer one way or another,” Fast says. “It’s important for us to use our platform to help generate much-needed funding.”
The team has held a fundraiser in past years, but this year they are putting in extra effort to organize new ways to raise money, including securing some big prizes, like a pair of tickets to see the Winnipeg Jets.
“We have held this fundraiser in past years, but typically we just donate our gate admission and 50/50,” she says. “This year we are really trying to ramp it up to get as many people as we can from our community to come out and watch a great game of hockey and support a great cause… We hope that businesses in our communities will help by donating some prizes. We also have an online link where people can donate directly to CancerCare.”
The U18 Eastman Selects female program is in its fourteenth year with the Manitoba Female Hockey League (MFHL). They are made up of players who reside in the Eastman region (southeastern Manitoba) in Grades 10 through 12. This is their first year playing out of the CRRC.
“We are very excited to be based out of the CRRC,” says Fast. “The beautiful facility and great staff have been wonderful to work with.”
Brent Wery, vice-director for Eastman Selects female program in Manitoba Minor Hockey, is excited about the future of the team. Wery’s job is to advocate for female players and ensure that players have as many opportunities possible in sport.
“Generally, every team in the league does their part to raise awareness for breast cancer through the month of November,” says Wery. “It’s become a tradition and as ambassadors to female hockey I think it’s great that these girls get engaged in their communities this way.”
As the female athletes work toward furthering possible careers in sport, Wery wants to encourage Niverville to continue to embrace the team and come out to show their support.
“What I find most exciting about the MFHL is that it is a showcase of our province’s best under-18-year-old female athletes,” he adds. “Colleges and universities from all over North America, along with Hockey Canada and Hockey Manitoba, follow the league and teams that play for it in hopes of recruiting some of the best athletes to for their programs. This team is the best from the Eastman region and our flagship for female hockey.”
Other than playing in Niverville and away games across the province, this year the team is excited to travel to Toronto the weekend of December 2–4 for an elite tournament called 2 Nations College Prep.
The event is one of the most popular during the winter hockey season. Teams come from a range of places across North America, from California to Western Canada to New England and Northern Ontario. Many scouts from universities and colleges around Canada and the U.S. will be in attendance.
The November 5 Hockey Fights Cancer game will cost $5 per adult and $3 for seniors. Students and kids under 12 can attend free of charge.
