The newly rostered Salmon Arm Silverbacks girls PeeWee team is in need of funds to participate in an Olympian-hosted hockey tournament in the Lower Mainland.
The team has been selected to play at the Canadian Tire Wickenheiser World Female Hockey Festival, also known as WickFest, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2. The festival consists of a tournament that sees games played across multiple age categories and includes several professional development activities. Participants also have the chance to meet the festival’s namesake, decorated Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser.
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Only recently enough players were added to the roster to form a team so the group has not had time to host a tournament of their own – a fundraising opportunity that could have brought in $3,000 to $7,000.
Entering the tournament itself costs $2,000, and the team is asking for $5,000. The remaining funds would go towards the 15 team member’s transportation, food, lodgings and, if the budget allows, professional development activities not included in the tournament cost.
Team members, whose ages range from 11 to 14, have been fundraising on their own but are still far behind their goal.
“Our girls have been hustling; they did a really lucrative bottle drive and they’ve also been selling coupon pizza cards, but we’re so far away from our goal of paying for this tournament,” said team manager Hannah Spencer who has a daughter on the team.
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“The girls are excited, we were really hoping this would happen for us. Everybody was thrilled when they found out.”
Spencer said the team has turned to public fundraising as parents of the players have already made significant financial contributions to the team. If you would like to make a donation you can find the fundraiser called The Face of Hockey in Canada on Facebook.
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