Habs and the Y takin’ it to the street
FOCUS ON: STREET HOCKEY 48 teams will hit the pavement in a bid to raise $250,000 for youth sports programs
In trying to get a charity event off the ground, you can do a lot worse than an association with Montreal’s most familiar symbol.
Marketing people call it “branding.” And the strongest brand in town is the red white and blue CH of the Montreal Canadiens.
The organization is not unaware. The Club de hockey Canadien logo is a registered trademark that can’t be cavalierly slapped on the signage of any money-grabbers seeking gilt by association. Deluged by requests, the Canadiens are picky about partners.
Next month the official CH flag will fly on Westbury Ave. The Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation and the YM-YWHA are cosponsoring a two-day street hockey tournament that will raise funds to benefit youth programs.
“This is what it’s all about,” says Pierre Boivin, pointing to an illustration on the event’s glossy fourpage brochure: three street signs reading “Play hockey,” “Help kids” and “Have fun.”
Boivin is president and chief executive officer of Claridge Investments. He joined Stephen Bronfman’s private investment firm last September after 12 years as president of the Canadiens.
Boivin still sits on the hockey club’s board of directors. His pet project, launched shortly after Boivin took the reins of the team in 1999, is the Children’s Foundation, which has channelled more than $14 million to 450 charitable endeavours. The Children’s Foundation’s most notable achievement is the Bleu Blanc Rouge program: construction of state-of-the-art outdoor rinks in Villeray-st. MichelPark Extension, Montreal North, Verdun, Lasalle and, next winter, Benny Park in N.D.G.
The Y runs programs on a more modest scale. But Boivin says the two organizations are “a perfect fit” because they share a common and highly worthwhile goal: the promotion of sports as a healthy activity for children.
And we’re not talking Electronic Arts Sports NHL 12.
Way back in the day, before Sherwood gave way to joysticks, every pre-adolescent in Montreal played street hockey. Nets – minded by kids in full goaltender regalia, making pad saves on tennis balls – were a familiar sight on the streets of the island’s residential neighbourhoods.
Steve Stotland, who grew up in the Snowdon district during the 1950s, remembers street hockey games regularly disrupted by nonZamboni vehicular traffic.
“Someone would yell ‘Car!’ and everything would stop,” he says.
Puckus interruptus didn’t stop Stotland from becoming a lifelong hockey enthusiast. After building a successful office supplies business and running hockey camps with Jacques Lemaire and Yvan Cournoyer during the 1970s, Stotland became a mergers and acquisitions specialist. In recent years, he has been involved in groups attempting to buy professional franchises, including the Phoenix Coyotes.
Stotland got involved in fundraising for the YM-YWHA at the behest of his friend Peter Lewis, the organization’s president. Stotland was in Toronto last autumn when that city’s Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer tournament was launched, and a light clicked on.
“I thought it would be a fantastic way to raise funds for kids,” Stotland says. “Different from golf tournaments, different from bike-athons – very unique.”
Stotland thought the idea was a natural for a hockey-crazed city like Montreal. But rather than stage a tournament solely as a Y fund- raiser, he reached out to the organization that is atop any hockey-related organigram.
His contact was Boivin, whom Stotland had known for 10 years. The Canadiens executive was receptive to the idea of a fundraiser that would jointly benefit two 100-yearold Montreal institutions, the Canadiens and the YM-YWHA.
“I knew the Canadiens always want to do things first-class,” Stotland says. “When I first met Pierre, he was interested, but he insisted this be done first-class.”
We were chatting at Claridge Investments. Boivin’s classy office is on the eighth floor of the elegant Windsor building on Peel St.
Tasteful art adorns the walls, and Boivin’s windows overlook Dorchester Square. Memorabilia of the executive’s former gig includes an autographed black-and-white photo of Jean Béliveau clutching the Stanley Cup and a colour shot of Saku Koivu waving to Bell Centre fans on April 9, 2002 – the night of the courageous captain’s return from cancer treatment.
Boivin cites Koivu’s subsequent fundraising efforts as a shining example of the Canadiens organization giving something back to its legion of loyal fans and the Montreal community.
“I am convinced Saku has saved 10 lives in Montreal,” Boivin said. “His foundation, the PET scan machine they bought for the Montreal General … and the visits he made on his own to kids who were cancer patients.”
Toronto’s Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer had 1,000 participants, raised more than $2.4 million and expanded to Edmonton and Vancouver. Any event with the dreaded disease in its title is going to generate major $$$; the Montreal event, with youth programs as its beneficiary, has set more modest targets.
Stotland says $300,000, raised through participant fees and pledges, is a reasonable goal. Boivin ventured $250,000.
“Under-promise, over-deliver,” Boivin laughed, citing a fundraising maxim.
“What this has done for us,” Stotland says, “is take the YM-YWHA out of Snowdon to a bigger level, through association with the Montreal Canadiens.”
“It’s a springboard,” Boivin said. “It’s given you a lot of visibility with people who wouldn’t normally be approached to help the Y.”
The first Street Hockey de Rue tournament will involve 48 teams of 10 members. Units of four will play 30-minute games on a 40x90-foot enclosed space in a festive atmosphere that will feature live entertainment and celebrity guests.
There are many prizes, including executive loge suites for a game and this primo incentive: The top fundraiser will be part of the Canadiens’ team photo next season. The club introduced the promotion at their annual golf tournament, and the top bidder paid $18,000 to be in the Canadiens’ official photograph.
“It will be the marquee street hockey event in Quebec,” Stotland says, “and next year will be even bigger and better.”