Dinner with Habs raises $3,300 for Christmas Fund
Dave Stubbs-Colby Armstrong exchange morphs into a feel-good fundraiser
What began as a somewhat goofy, spur-of-the-moment tweet from The Gazette’s Dave Stubbs aimed in the direction of new Canadiens forward Colby Armstrong has spawned a $3,300 donation to The Gazette Christmas Fund.
And it’s ultimately pro- duced an evening for a generous woman and her guest to dine in the company of six Canadiens and a popular former Hab at one of the city’s finest restaurants.
So who said social media is a waste of time and effort?
Caroline Tardif of Montreal came in with a bid of $3,300 in our Hockey Inside/ Out auction 25 minutes before its 11 a.m. close on Tuesday, every penny of this sum going to the fund that for 47 years has helped less privileged Montrealers with a helping hand during the holidays.
Stubbs’s Oct. 11 tweet to the locked-out Armstrong offered the gregarious winger a dinner at Montreal landmark Moishes if he took a photograph from the bench during a Tournée des joueurs exhibition game in Quebec City and tweeted it from rinkside.
Prompted by Mathieu Darche that night, Armstrong delivered — if bending the rules a little — and a dinner for two quickly morphed into the significant charity event it has become.
Tardif jumped into the eBay auction late, bidding just twice — an offer of $3,100 at 10:31 a.m. on Tuesday, then her winning bid four minutes later, leaping by $50 the $3,250 maximum posted by an earlier bidder.
A total of 52 bids, starting at $300, were made by 11 bidders over the five-day online auction.
The dinner, to be held soon at Moishes, will be attended by Tardif and her guest along with Canadiens Armstrong, captain Brian Gionta, Josh Gorges, Travis Moen, Carey Price and Brandon Prust, as well as Darche, the former Habs forward who now is an unsigned free agent.