Cochranite Garrett Iverson decided he was going to take a casual, fun event with his buddies and turn it into something that he could use to help others.
The 23-year-old has hosted a three-on-three pond hockey tournament at various ponds and outdoor rinks in Cochrane for the last two years to gather friends and family who were returning from university or were from out of town to celebrate the holiday season. This year, he decided to raise money for the Hockey Canada Foundation – a registered nonprofitable foundation that enables, educates and engages children from all across Canada to learn about and play the game of hockey.
"This is the first year for the charity tournament, but this is the third year I've put on the tournament," Iverson. "I originally just wanted to organize something to get my friends all together. Life gets in the way with people going to school and working ... we all grew up playing hockey together so that's how it started, this year I just wanted to do something for a good cause."
"The main reason I chose the Hockey Canada Foundation was that most Canadians enjoy the game of hockey so much, that they'll go out in minus 40 degree weather to play some pond hockey. I just want everyone to be able to experience the same thing.
With more than 50 players participating, Iverson said the tournament has always had a pretty good turnout and is looking to hopefully gain some new groups of people as well as sponsors who can help surpass the $1,800 raised this year.
"They're just a good group of guys. Everyone wants to be there and show their support which is nice, they want to have fun and love the game of hockey. At the end of the day, I think everyone this year wanted to help out. We got great support from our sponsors – Kingsmith Homes, Cochrane Rental Centre, Riverside Insurance and Rising Star Oil and Gas all were huge with their donations as well," Iverson said.
"I'd like to continue doing this event. I'm curious to see how big it would get because this year everyone was jumping on board and I kept it within my group of buddies. I'd like to make this a thing that could potentially raise a lot more money than we did this year."
"This year surpassed my expectation as far as how much money we raised. At the start I was thinking that if we raised $500, that would be awesome. I was blown away by how much we raised."
