Fundraiser
said this year’s event featured 200 participants who had more than 1,000 people donate to the cause.
“Many people don’t know that the equipment that we use at the hospital is not funded by the government, so we rely on community support,” she said.
“This year we had to replace a lot of our beds and mattresses. We do a lot of rehab. Any rehab equipment that we need, either in-patient or out-patient, parallel bars, sit-tostands — any of that kind of equipment is not covered, so we use these funds to purchase that. Our money is not paying people’s salaries, it’s literally paying for the equipment that you need to do your job.”
May said he’s participated in the event for the past several years, adding coming back to Niagara is “special” for him.
“I played junior hockey here in Niagara Falls, went to high school at Stamford high school, and then, of course, played a bunch of years in Buffalo just down the road, and ended my career in Toronto,” he said.
May, who lives just north of Toronto, said it takes “great people to do great things on the private side to raise funds for these institutions when all our government does is give money away to everybody else and every other endeavour, and they don’t take care of the things that are most important.”
“Our government taxes us to no end and then it takes people with their own private money to make a real difference in their community, and it speaks volumes of how great people are,” he said.
May said fundraisers like this are examples of how “hockey is a gift that keeps on giving.”
“People say that the culture of hockey has to change, we’ve heard this dialogue over a number years,” he said.
“No. Bad things have to stop happening in every sector, but the culture of hockey is thriving, it’s raising millions and millions and millions of dollars with great people donating their time, volunteers, money, hospitals, charities — the game of hockey does that.”
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