Three Days Grace helping Team 55
Three Days Grace fans should take notice of perhaps the most important Friday Night Lights Team 55 fundraisers to date.
Three Days Grace drummer Neil Sanderson will be the guest speaker for the sixth annual Team 55 Let’s Tackle Suicide Awareness event Sept. 21 at the Thomas A. Stewart Athletic Field.
Funds will support the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Assertive Outreach For Suicide Prevention program (AOSP).
A lucky spectator will win a Three Days Grace prize package including four tickets to their Nov. 30 show in Oshawa, backstage passes to meet the band, dinner, a limousine ride to and from the concert and a limited edition coloured vinyl version of their latest album Outsider signed by the band.
Sanderson will sing the national anthem after his speech during the 6 p.m. opening ceremonies.
“The other cool thing about this year’s guest speaker is he, like many who have participated in our past events, is a local high school alumnus,” said Team 55 founder Dave Pogue, during a press conference Wednesday.
“He attended and graduated from Adam Scott high school. It’s always important to show our youth of today the success stories of those who walked their high school hallways not that long ago.”
On Tuesday, Three Days Grace, formed in Norwood in 1997, hit No. 1 on the Billboard mainstream rock chart with their latest single Infra-Red. It’s a record eighth No. 1 single on that chart, breaking Van Halen’s record of seven.
This year’s event is also critical, says Pogue, because Ministry of Health officials will be in attendance. Team 55 has funded AOSP, a pilot started in 2016 to counsel people at risk for suicide.
To date 100 people have been assisted and CMHA manager of community engagement and education Jack Veitch said the program has been 100 per cent successful in keeping those people alive.
Pogue said the Liberal government twice turned down CMHA funding requests for AOSP. Peterborough-Kawartha MPP David Smith will be joined at the event by Robin Martin, parliamentary assistant to Health Minister Christine Elliott, as she tours Ontario identifying priorities for mental health funding.
“We are urging our community to get down to TASSS in large numbers,” Pogue said.
“This evening is our opportunity to make an impression on Ms. Martin so that when she reports back from her cross province tour to discuss where the province should invest its mental health dollars, Peterborough, Lindsay, the local CMHA and specifically this AOSP program, should be high on her list.
“Please come out and give and show our dignitaries how much we believe in this program and how incredibly this community has supported its mental health improvement.”
The theme this year is Five Years Together, Five Years Stronger. It will again celebrate youth through high school sports.
The day begins at noon with TASSS and Crestwood junior football teams. Holy Cross and Adam Scott juniors play at 1:45 p.m. Girls rugby takes over with TASSS and Adam Scott juniors at 3 p.m. and seniors at 4 p.m.
Ceremonies are from 6 to 7 p.m. followed by a senior football doubleheader. TASSS faces Crestwood followed by Adam Scott and Holy Cross at 9 p.m.
Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher have donated raffle prizes along with a recliner from Leon’s valued at $500, a Petes box suite complete with food and tickets to an upcoming game donated by Darling Insurance, a Peterborough Originals clothing package from Flavour Fashion Peterborough and items from rock band Thousand Foot Krutch donated by Trevor McNevan.
Funds will also be raised through food, beverage, T-shirt and souvenir sales. Sponsors include Maple Leaf Foods, Morello’s Independent Grocer, PepsiCo, Sysco and the Country Style on Chemong Road.