Inferno turning purple for mental health awareness
Club hopes to lock up first place with win over Montreal in front of huge crowd
The Calgary Inferno have set their sights on finishing atop the Canadian Women’s Hockey League standings.
The defending Clarkson Cup champions have also been doing their part to provide mentorship and an avenue for youth to talk about mental health issues in their school communities.
Thanks to the Start the Spark initiative spearheaded by forward Jessica Campbell, the Inferno have a chance to accomplish their goal in front of a boisterous crowd of supporters at Winsport’s Markin MacPhail Centre (Arena A, 6:15 p.m.) on Saturday night.
In what’s billed as the purple awareness game, the Inferno (193-0) can wrap up top spot in the CWHL with a victory or even a loss in overtime or a shootout against Les Canadiennes de Montreal (164-2).
“As for the actual excitement of the weekend and the game and what’s on the line, I know we’re more than ready for what’s ahead of us,” said Campbell, who also works as the Director of Communications for the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre. “I think when puck-drop hits, we’re just so pumped that we’re going to have a massive fan base behind us hooting and hollering and cheering and just making it that much more exciting for both teams.”
The Inferno and the SKCAC combined to launch Start the Spark last year as a mentorship program that helps vulnerable youth. It culminated with a purple awareness game against Les Canadiennes last season as well.
“Montreal’s been a huge supporter of the mission of the cause,” said Campbell, who was impressed that Montreal captain Marie-Phillip Poulin bought 25 purple Inferno shirts before the game began.
This year, Campbell made sure some purple shirts with the Les Canadiennes’ logo were made up for the Montreal players.
“Any time there’s benefit games, charity games, causes … every team supports each other,” said Campbell following a pep rally Wednesday at Holy Cross School. “We kind of drop the competitive piece in that aspect and we just play for the cause. Obviously when the puck drops, it’s a hockey game and we’re going to be both battling it out.”
Over the past three weeks, Campbell and several of her Inferno teammates volunteered at Holy Cross to talk to 600 students from Grades 5 to 9 about mental health issues and promote the pillars of the program: fostering strength, building resiliency and promoting communication.
“Mental health is a huge part of society and unfortunately not enough people talk about it and not enough people are willing or open to even do something like this, especially when it involves kids,” Inferno forward Haley Irwin said. “Obviously Jessica Campbell is the lead in all of this and the amount of work that she’s put in is awesome, not only to the learning component, but also just putting people in the seats.”
About 500 Holy Cross students and their family and friends will be in attendance for Saturday’s game. Campbell said the Inferno held a virtual ticket campaign, whereby sponsors and donors purchased tickets for others, and she’s hoping a capacity crowd turns out for the game.
“We’ve had sponsors all across the country rally around this,” she said. “It’s been pretty incredible to see because now we’ve been able to actually hand out tickets that have been purchased by people who also want to support this cause.”
The same two teams will wrap up their CWHL regular season schedules with a rematch at the Markin MacPhail Centre Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
“Both teams always bring their best when we play each other,” said Irwin, who’s happy to be playing after missing a year and a half of action due to a concussion and then hip surgery. “They’re highly skilled, highly talented and they work hard. It should be a very exciting weekend.”
ICE CHIPS: On Saturday, the Inferno will be wearing limited edition purple jerseys, provided by Scotiabank to auction off in support of the Sparks Mentorship program at the SKCAC … The Inferno will host a playoff series against either the Brampton Thunder or Toronto Furies Feb. 24-26. Due to a scheduling conflict, the opener and the third game, if necessary, will be held at the Carstairs Memorial Arena. Game 2 of the series will be played at the Joan Snyder Arena in the Markin MacPhail Centre.
I think when puck-drop hits, we’re just so pumped that we’re going to have a massive fan base behind us hooting and hollering and cheering.