Giants to salute military with Vimy Ridge-themed jerseys against Blazers

Dale Saip calls Friday’s military appreciation night “one of the events I’m most proud of ” during his time with the Vancouver Giants.

The Giants will wear special Vimy Ridge-themed jerseys for their Western Hockey League game against the Kamloops Blazers at the Langley Events Centre. There will be a Sopwith Camel replica plane on display outside the arena and author Warren Sommer, who wrote Canucks in Khaki about the First World War and its impact on Langley and the Lower Mainland, will be on hand to sell and sign copies of his recently published book.

“With the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, that’s obviously a significant part of our history as Canadians and a lot of the people who fought were the same age that our players are now,” said Saip, the Giants’ senior vicepresident and a member of the organization since it formed for the 2001-02 season.

“We want our players specifically to understand the sacrifices that have been made for their freedom.”

The Giants trot out the specialty jerseys a handful of times every season. It’s often simply to get attention, something which the Giants brass readily admits. It works well on occasion, like the Star Warsthemed jerseys from a couple of seasons ago that got the club considerable play on social media.

Then there are bigger-picture things. The Giants were among the first teams to get involved with the Don Cherry jerseys, which have now become a WHL-wide initiative. On Oct. 7, the Giants wore Cherry suit uniforms for a home game against the Tri-City Americans and then auctioned off the jerseys online afterward with proceeds going to the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

They’ll do something similar here. The auction for the Vimy Ridge jerseys runs through Nov. 7 and can be found at 32auctions. com/giantsvimy.

Proceeds will go to the Vimy Foundation. According to its website, the Vimy Foundation’s mission is to “preserve and promote Canada’s First World War legacy as symbolized with the victory at Vimy Ridge in April 1917, a milestone