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A Calgary peewee hockey team is a semi-finalist in the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup. And the team needs all the votes it can get to win $100,000 for its cause: The Nathan O’Brien Children’s Foundation.
The Springbank Rockies cracked the top 10 of the Good Deeds Cup after they worked tirelessly collecting food from 5,000 homes, filling up a tractor for the Calgary Food Bank.
“We had to fill a tractor trailer with 40 feet of food and we actually ended up actually getting 53 feet of food,” Springbank forward James Kilfoil said.
“You could just look over and see how much food we went around and collected and it was really amazing.”
The team captured the entire collection of food on camera to enter the Good Deeds Contest by submitting a video on YouTube. The amount of full views their video gets can help them become a top three finalist in the judging round. The winner gets $100,000, which the team said would be donated to the Nathan O’Brien Foundation.
READ MORE: Family of Nathan O’Brien launches children’s foundation with $1 million donation
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In 2014, five-year-old Nathan O’Brien and his grandparents were murdered. Nathan’s parent’s created the Nathan O’Brien Children’s Foundation in his memory.
Nathan would be playing at the peewee level in hockey this year. Nathan’s dad, Rod, said it means so much to their family to see the Springbank Rockies make a difference in support of their foundation.
“For my wife and I, it’s a real treat. It just shows the power of community and the community stepping back in again to help support our foundation and Nathan’s spirit,” Rod said.
“Not everyone gets to do an opportunity like this or make a difference in their lives. What these kids have done is just… they’ve hit it out of the ball park.”
“You’re doing such an amazing thing in honouring our son,” Nathan’s mom Jennifer said to the team in their online video.
The Springbank Rockies need one more home run to get one step closer to being a finalist in the Good Deeds Cup. They need Albertans to vote for them by watching their video.
“All you have to do is search ‘Good Deeds Cup,’ find the Springbank Rockies box, click on that, watch one full view. One view equals one vote,” Rockies Head Coach Kevin Heise said.
Springbank Rockies forward Murray Kanerva was so proud to give back to those in need.
“It means to give back to people that have helped you. The Calgary Food Bank, there’s multiple people that live near us, around us, that have used it and it just feels amazing to be able to help them.”
Kanerva said winning the $100,000 would be a huge accomplishment for the Calgary Food Bank and Nathan O’Brien Foundation.
“It would also help keep the spirit of Nathan O’Brien alive, which is very important,” Kanerva said.
One good deed continues to go a long way for the hockey community in Calgary.
Voting ends Feb. 9 and then the top three teams move on to the judging round.
To vote, visit the Good Deeds Cup website, select ‘Top 10’ and then view the Springbank Rockies’ 60-second video. One completed view is one vote. You can watch as much as you want, there is no limit.
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