Tuesday marked our annual fundraiser, Skate with the Canes and Wednesday played host to Cable for a Cause at Bailey’s.

Doug Warf

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The two days combined helped raise nearly $35,000 for our Kids ‘N Community Foundation.  That money will be distributed this coming March in our next grant cycle. 

Skate with the Canes
Skate with the Canes was a terrific event that saw over 500 people get the chance to interact with our great players and coaches. 

Katharine and Anne did a lot of work planning a great event that was executed with a near flawless precision.  A big thanks to them for all of their hard work on the event.  The BIGGEST thanks goes to the folks who attended the event.  Our team and our Foundation greatly appreciate your support…without you, neither is possible.

Here are a few of things that I took note of and thought I would share:

• The skating group is the hardest to manage as you have a lot of people who need to rent skates.  We borrow as many skates as possible (thanks Cary Ice House) but it always leads to a small overlap of people waiting for others to return skates before they can take the ice.
  
  This overlap means that generally kids who have their own skates are on the ice first.  Tuesday night, the players were extra fast at changing into their skates, which meant for most of the sessions, the start was mainly kids and players.  At the start of the third session Tuomo Ruutu was skating by himself and began playing impromptu games of tag with kids who were skating as fast as they could.  So, basically, he attacked Skate with the Canes like he does a normal game.

• Ryan Bayda apparently lost a race on skates to a 9-year-old girl.  Ryan took the loss in stride as he spoke highly of her skating skills.

• Several players brought out their kids who all enjoyed traveling through with their father’s.  Ray Whitney’s daughter sported a black Whitney jersey, but his son opted for a red Staal.  When I asked him where his Whitney jersey was, he said his other jersey was Williams.  Ray seemed ok with it…hey…at least he has a daddy’s girl.

• Chad Larose did an interview with News 14 and could not have done a better job if it was scripted by a professional speech writer.  To me, this goes to show that the players know why they are at these events and understand the importance of our fans, our community outreach and our Kids ‘N Community Foundation.

• Canes fans like toques/knit hats/toboggans (select which one you call it)

Cable for a Cause
Cable for a Cause at Bailey’s in Cameron Village was also a great success.  Wednesday was a bit of a hectic day so I didn’t make it by Bailey’s until later in the day. 

When I did make it by, they had already sold out of the Yurman bracelet specifically designed for this event.  This was terrific because Bailey’s had ordered 25 of the bracelets…even though most events only sell 15-20 bracelets.  By the time I was there, they were taking rain checks for the bracelet while still selling other Yurman items that would benefit our Foundation. 

We don’t have a final total yet, but by mid afternoon there was just over $3,000 that would be donated to the Kids ‘N Community Foundation.  This number can still grow as the “Cable for a Cause” bracelet will continue to be sold until mid-December with 20% of all sales of the bracelet coming back to the Foundation.