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NOFCC scores $10K donation raised at Canadians’ Super Mario hockey game

NOFCC supports families of children battling cancer, but the pandemic has hampered the non-profit’s ability to fundraise
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Rayside Balfour Canadians owner Mark Burgess and Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer director Dayna Caruso unveil a $10,000 cheque donated to NOFCC raised at a February Super Mario-themed hockey game. (Arron Pickard/Sudbury.com)

The Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer (NOFCC) is the hat-trick of organizations that made it the ideal charity to support with a substantial donation, said the owners of the Rayside Balfour Canadians

NOFCC “ticked all the boxes,” said Mark Burgess, who owns the Canadians, of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. The NOFCC is a small organization, the money raised stays in Northern Ontario, and it supports families in the North. 

Those are some of the reasons he and his wife, Karen, presented a cheque for $10,000 to the organization on June 4.

The money was raised through a February Super Mario-themed hockey game between the Canadians and the Blind River Beavers. The game packed the Chelmsford Arena with more than 500 fans. The Canadians donned Super Mario jerseys for the game, and they were auctioned off afterwards.

The event raised $7,500 and the Burgess family topped it up to an even $10,000.

“Our family has always supported the Greater Sudbury community, and it feels great to be back in junior hockey and help raise some important funds to support local families through the NOFCC,” Burgess said.

For its part, the NOFCC is grateful for the donation at a time when fundraising dollars are hard to come by, said Dayna Caruso, director, NOFCC. The organization provides financial support to families with children battling cancer.

“Any donation we receive is always appreciated, but at this time all of our fundraising is cancelled right now,” Caruso said. “Our families are in more need than ever, and we have basically no money coming in at all.”

NOFCC is finding ways to adapt and to get some fundraisers off the ground, but it means a tremendous deal that the Rayside Balfour Canadians honoured its deal and even topped it up, Caruso said.

“This donation will stretch about half a month,” she said. “Typically, we put out about $20,000 to $30,000 a month to our families, and we still are, and this will mean a great deal and allow them to get through their emergency situations.”

NOFCC families are already efficient at self-isolating, however, COVID-19 is exacerbating the situation, Caruso said. 

For example, with current travel restrictions, there are many families where maybe only one parent can stay in the hospital, and they are stuck there, Caruso said. If they do leave, they might be able to get back into the Ronald McDonald House.

“So they have to pay for accommodations, and they aren't having any income coming in, so we're seeing our programs heavily utilized right now, with no fundraising dollars coming in,” Caruso said.

Annually, NOFCC supports about 200 families across Northern Ontario, but there's a list of 400 families that can access the programs at any time, she said. From April and May alone, the organization is out about $100,000 in fundraising dollars.

One of the things that makes NOFCC unique is that it doesn't just help with the treatment phase of cancer, but it helps with the after-care programs like counselling, which comes many years later, or bursaries for post-secondary education, Caruso said. 

“We see families 10 even 15 years after treatment accessing our programs,” she said.

Burgess and his family extended a thank you to all the Rayside Balfour Canadians fans that supported the Super Mario game and participated in the jersey auction, as well as to Kevin Eady and the ownership and staff from William Day Construction for being the title sponsor.


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Arron Pickard

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