Hockey Helps the Homeless Waterloo Region Reaches 10th Anniversary
Back in 2014 the first Hockey Helps the Homeless (HHTH) tournament in our Region took place, generating $70,000 for some of our local shelters. Nine years later we are upon the 10th annual tournament and are ready to surpass the $2 million mark in funds granted over this 10-year period. At this years’ event all funds raised will be granted to six local shelter organizations which include the House of Friendship, YW Kitchener-Waterloo, oneROOF Youth Services, Lutherwood’s Safe Haven, Cambridge Shelter Corporation, and The Working Centre.
For anyone not familiar with HHTH, they are a national charity and run one-day pro-am tournaments in 17 cities across Canada, and growing, where regular hockey players get treated like a pro for the day, while playing with NHL Alumni and female Olympians. A group of local dedicated volunteers run the Waterloo Region hockey tournament, where all proceeds raised have helped shelters that assist homeless men, women and youth in the Region.
The funds raised over the last ten years have been vital in assisting our local shelters, as explained by John Colangeli, Chief Executive Officer, Lutherwood:
“Through HHTH’s grants, Lutherwood provided over 3700 nights of shelter for youth in our community. A night at Safe Haven Youth Services is so much more than a bed to sleep in. Our caring staff at Safe Haven help strengthen young peoples’ lives and put resources in place to prevent them from being without a home as adults. We are so grateful to everyone at HHTH for their hard work and dedication.”
To date, HHTH Waterloo Region has granted $1,903,000, which equates to 24,714 shelter bed nights. With the need ever-increasing, we will require your help even more in the coming years.
The 2023 tournament takes place Friday, October 27th at RIM Park from 8:00am – 4:30pm. The general public can watch games for free, and maybe even meet some of the NHL Alumni and Olympians. Some of the Pros attending this year include Shayne Corson, Gilbert Dionne, Raffi Torres, and Jocelyne Larocque.
HHTH Waterloo Region would also like to thank the Kitchener Rangers for being an awesome Community Partner and supporting us over the last decade.
A note for all Rangers fans: Sunday, October 15th is our Hockey Helps the Homeless game day at The Aud as the Rangers take on the visiting Windsor Spitfires at 2:00PM. You can find out more information on the tournament by visiting the Community Corner. Don’t forget to bring new mitts, gloves, toques or scarves to the Community Corner on game day, as we will be collecting items for our Drop the Gloves campaign!
More information about our annual tournament can be found on their website http://wr.hhth.com/ or by following them year-round on social media on Facebook: @HHTHWR – X: @HHTHWR and Instagram @HHTHWR.
