The Sudbury Lady Wolves Peewee A team, made up of 11- and 12-year-old girls, is giving a lot of love to the Elgin Street Mission this holiday season.
The girls are trying to win the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup, which would come with a $100,000 prize for the charity of their choice.
If the team won, the money would go to the Elgin Street Mission to purchase a new, larger vehicle to collect food donations, along with other much-needed upgrades.
According to its website, the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup “seeks to inspire young Canadians to do good by transforming the positive values learned through hockey into Good Deeds within their communities.”
As you'd expect from the competition's name, the young hockey players are asked to do good deeds in the community.
The Sudbury Lady Wolves have a number of good deeds in mind, all of them focused on helping clients of the Elgin Street Mission, which provides services to Greater Sudbury's homeless and vulnerable population.
From Dec. 5-7, the Sudbury Lady Wolves Peewee A team are running a food drive competition for teams playing in the Silver Stick Tournament.
Non-perishable food will be collected for the Elgin Street Mission in a hockey bag in the lobby of the Countryside Arena.
Fans coming to watch games can help their team win by donating food. The winning team will receive the tournament Heart Award.
On Dec. 6, during the Sudbury Wolves home game, the Sudbury Sudbury Lady Wolves Peewee A team will launch its Christmas Card Caring Campaign.
The team is asking the public to fill out Christmas cards for Mission clients, many of whom get nothing for Christmas, not even a card.
Watch out for Lady Wolves members at the game, as they circulate in the crowd, asking people to sign Christmas cards.
If any individual, schools, hockey teams or other groups in our community would like to join the Christmas Card Campaign to send messages of encouragement to the hungry or homeless in our community, email [email protected].
Teams playing in the Snowflake Tournament Dec. 13-14 will also have the opportunity to take part in the Christmas Card Caring Campaign. All participating teams will be entered for a chance to win the Heart Award.
Then Dec. 21, the Sudbury Lady Wolves Peewee A team will bake 200 homemade muffins, and the next day, they'll serve the muffins as well as other breakfast items at the Mission. (Note the kids will be under strict adult supervision while they're serving breakfast at the Mission).
Kathy Svalina-Grottoli, hockey mom to 11-year-old team member Daniela Grottoli, said she thinks these activities will be a real eye-opener.
“I just think that we need to instill empathy and kindness and volunteering into them now,” she said.
“If we do that, what I'm hoping for is in the future is it will help them be more empathetic when they see people in need and hopefully lead them to volunteer later in life.
“At the end of the day if you think about, we're just all people who live here, whether you're eating at the Mission, no matter who you are.
“The people we see begging on the streets, those are members of our community, just as we are members of our community. I think we owe it to everybody to treat people with respect and to help out whenever we can.”
Elgin Street Mission director Pastor Brad Hale said the team's efforts are much appreciated.
“A lot of these kids probably don't even know what homelessness is all about,” he said. “So it's a good exposure for them to see that there's a great need in the city. I'm really excited about it.”
