As team’s fortunes slide, Senators Foundation asks public: ‘Stick with us’
It was tragedy that brought Andrea Gumpert and David Bell to Roger Neilson House after the accidental death of their toddler son, Etienne, in 2011.
“I didn’t want to go on,” says Gumpert, looking back on the period after her first son died of head trauma while at daycare. Bereavement support from Roger Neilson House helped the couple to cope with crushing grief and find a way to go on. “We got to meet other parents who recently lost a child. We weren’t alone and that helped,” said Bell.
The birth of their second son, Emanuel, just a month after Etienne’s death, deepened the family’s connection to the organization that focuses on children with life-limiting illnesses and their families. Emanuel was born with a rare genetic disorder and receives pain management and respite care at Roger’s House. Now eight, he is developmentally delayed, non-verbal and non-mobile.
“Life has given us some awfully cruel twists and turns,” said Bell in a 2016 video about Roger Neilson House. The entire family, including six-year-old Florian, benefits from the organization that has become a central part of their lives.
“It is a place that gives us strength,” Gumpert says simply.
Roger Neilson House, which opened in 2006 after a campaign by the Ottawa Senators Foundation, is a beloved Ottawa institution that supports families like the Gumpert-Bells. It is closely connected to the foundation, the charity arm of the NHL team. The foundation helped to build Roger’s House and supports it annually.
That connection brings more than financial support to Roger Neilson House and other causes supported by the foundation. It also brings NHL star power.
But during low periods for the team — like the current one — it can also carry baggage.
And that is making this a challenging year for the Ottawa Senators Foundation. With the Senators sitting at the bottom of their NHL division, attendance slumping and fans grumbling about ownership, the foundation is feeling the impact.
Lower attendance means the charity’s main revenue source — the 50/50 draws — has taken a hit this season. The goal is to raise more than $2.3 million this year through the 50/50. So far, revenues have fallen short.
Do the fortunes of a sports charity necessarily follow the team’s? Ottawa Senators Foundation officials argue that should not be the case and are appealing to the public to look beyond hockey stats when it comes to supporting the foundation.
“We are in a bit of a valley right now and we are rebuilding,” said foundation president and chief executive Danielle Robinson. “I would just really encourage people to stick with us. We have a proven track record of giving back.”
Brad Weir, director of communications, believes the foundation has a role to play helping fans to deal with the peaks and valleys of professional sports. He also appeals to non-fans for support.
“What we want to do as an organization is lessen the impact of those (team) peaks and valleys by showing the players doing this great work off the ice and reminding people that you don’t have to be a fan of the team — you don’t have to like hockey — to see the value of having an NHL hockey club in Ottawa. It is really so much more than that,” Weir said.
The charitable foundation has been around since 1998. Since then, it has provided $60 million in support for a range of programs, mainly in the categories of social recreation, education and physical and mental wellness. It helps children from lower-income families participate in sports, sends children to camp, supports mental health programs, supports the Capital City Condors, a hockey program for developmentally and physically disabled players, and more.
Player involvement is part of the package.
Popular former Ottawa Senators forward Kyle Turris famously skipped celebrations after scoring the winning goal in Game 5 of the team’s playoff series in 2017 and rushed to make the season-ending banquet of the Capital City Condors. He had been the team’s honorary captain for five years.
Players also regularly make appearances and take part in other organizations and programs supported by the foundation.
Beyond attendance woes at hockey games and falling 50/50 revenues, the foundation has also faced tough scrutiny from Charity Intelligence Canada, which rates charities based on their transparency, overhead costs and other factors. In 2018, Charity Intelligence gave The Ottawa Senators Foundation just one star out of four, based largely on the fact that it spends 46 cents of every dollar it raises on overhead and lacks transparency. In 2018, the foundation raised $3.8 million in donations and special events fundraising.
Robinson said the way NHL foundations raise money skews costs. Half of the money raised through 50/50 draws gets paid out in prizes, she noted, which makes overall overhead expense numbers misleading. The draws, she noted, are not philanthropic, but charitable gaming.
Meanwhile, the foundation is trying to expand money raised through 50/50 draws, even when attendance is down, with online sales for people watching hockey games at home.
What happens if the foundation doesn’t bring in as much money as planned?
“I think our flexibility to do new things would be affected,” she said. “We get a lot of requests every single year, but we won’t really be able to expand the type of programs we are doing.”
Parents Gumpert and Bell are grateful for the support the Ottawa Senators Foundation continues to provide to Roger Neilson House, enabling special “wraparound” care for children like Emanuel, who receives recreation and music therapy, among other things.
The organization has become key to the entire family. On Halloween, Gumpert, Bell, Emanuel, and Florian went trick or treating with families and staff from Roger Neilson House. Staff canvassed the neighbourhood first to let people know that, although their children can’t eat candy, they still enjoy the experience. Many homes responded with stickers, books and stuffed animals.
Without Roger Neilson House, the family would likely not have taken Emanuel out. Keeping him warm can be a challenge and it can be complicated, Gumpert said. Doing it with others from Roger’s House, he said, felt like going out with family. epayne@postmedia.com