World’s Longest Hockey Game fundraiser faces new challenges
Despite more challenging conditions than previous years, organizer Brent Saik is hoping he and 39 other skaters will keep the record for the world’s longest hockey game.
“There is only one reason we do this and it’s for the people that we love,” Saik said Friday, before pulling on his gear for his second shift in the 10-day, 252-hour outdoor hockey game on Saiker’s Acres east of Sherwood Park.
“When your feet hurt and stuff like that, it’s about the pictures you see up on the walls. I just have to look up and see my dad and my wife on the wall and I get out there and skate again.”
Saik started the World’s Longest Hockey Game in support of the Alberta Cancer Foundation and the Cross Cancer Institute in 2003.
Just a few months after Saik held the first event in memory of his father, Terry Saik, who died of cancer in 1994, Saik’s wife, Susan, died from cancer in June 2003.
It’s their images on the wall that inspire him to keep going, keep skating and keep pushing for a future where cancer is no longer a death sentence.
“It saves a lot of people’s lives,” Saik said of the event.
Since 2003, the World’s Longest Hockey Game has raised more than $3.4 million, supporting revolutionary projects at the Cross Cancer Institute.
This year, Saik hopes to raise $2 million to support the Terry Fox Research Institute’s PROFYLE project, which plans to molecularly profile tumours suffered by children and youth with cancer to develop better targeted treatments.
“I know that it will make a difference. Every time we’ve done a game like this, it’s made an impact,” Saik said.
Their sixth record attempt at the World’s Longest Hockey Game brought added challenges, as Saik said officials with the Guinness Book of World Records notified him Thursday morning he would need two referees and two linesmen on the ice at all times, doubling the number of officials.
“The city came together and it’s fantastic,” Saik said. “I think it took hours before we got most of the shifts filled up.”
Saik said officials also reduced the amount of break time allowed, halving it to five minutes per hour. Because it takes the ice resurfacer 10 minutes to clear the ice, skaters will now have to skate for two hours straight, trading off in fourhour shifts during the tournament.
“That’s a tricky one, because it makes the ice very difficult to skate on,” said Saik, adding, “it makes the conditions a lot more dangerous.”
Players bundle up with heated mittens and vests, and wrapped their skates in foam and duct tape to save their feet from freezing.
The World’s Longest Hockey Game at Saiker’s Acres at 52269 Range Rd. 220 will run around the clock until Feb. 19. Spectators are welcome.