A Message From Meghan McCauley-Brown - Fundraising Director
Hello Grand Valley Hockey Families, It's hard to believe that it's already
November and we've been on the ice for almost four weeks! It is so
exciting to watch our hockey players work hard, develop skills, and foster
friendships.
It has also been a very busy few months
of fundraising events, and we would like to thank those that have supported
these events for their help in making them a great success. For those that have
not been able to assist yet, we would like to outline the importance
fundraising plays in any successful sports program.
We believe that organized sports, such as hockey, play a critical role in building stronger, healthier communities and the values instilled through hockey help build lifelong relationships, character, self-esteem, discipline, and good citizens. These intangibles are some of the many reasons we enroll our children in hockey; however, to achieve all the benefits of organized sport, it takes more parent commitment than most other sports, or even compared to a typical house league hockey program.
As a result, our objective with Grand Valley Minor Hockey is to offer a true local league hockey experience complete with more ice time, skills development, and competitive games in the Georgian Bay Triangle than any of our neighboring house league centres. Our mandate is to offer this enriched hockey program for a competitive price so that it is accessible to all members of our community and provide all youth with equal opportunity to reap the benefits of the wonderful sport of hockey.
Herein is where the challenge lies – offering an enriched experience coupled with the mandate to provide the lowest price possible to ensure no families are excluded due to financial considerations.
This is where fundraising becomes an integral part of the equation and supplements the initial registration fees to allow Grand Valley Minor Hockey to offer the best local league hockey program in the surrounding area. Some examples of our ongoing investments include:
· New boards to split the ice for the new IP and Tyke level team
· Early ice times in Shelburne to help prepare our kids for the season
· A home tournament free of cost for all teams, including an early season IP festival
· Additional “skills nights” with professional instructors
· Specialized goaltender training for that all-important position
· Additional referees for our older teams
· Additional weekly practices where possible
· Regularly refreshing jerseys/socks to keep our teams looking sharp on the ice
In addition to the financial cost of all these value adds, it is important to note that there is a tremendous amount of human resources effort and time required to coordinate the hockey association and all of our executive/coaches/managers are volunteers (with their own busy families, day jobs, and other commitments). Countless hours are necessary to organize all the moving parts of a hockey association ranging from financial/accounting, scheduling (ice/games/referees), legal, league convener, equipment, technical (coaching/training), registration, sponsorship, and fundraising, along with many other necessary duties behind-the-scenes.
Our executive/coaches/managers love supporting hockey in Grand Valley, and each volunteer brings a unique skill set to the table in order to run the association as efficiently and effectively as possible. We must point out that if these were paid positions there is no question the price of hockey would be out of reach and this is the last thing that we as an association want to see for our children.
What we would like to see is more widespread parental involvement and support, so the fundraising burden doesn’t unfairly fall back on the executive members who are already donating significant amounts of their personal time to run the association. “Many hands make light work” is an old adage that strongly applies to the successful operation of any hockey program. We would like to encourage all families to help out where they can to ensure Grand Valley Minor Hockey continues its current growth trend and ensure our children will have a place to play hockey, locally, for many years to come.
To help out, please review the website for volunteer opportunities, events, fundraising efforts, and talk to your coach/manager about where you could lend a helping hand. Every little bit helps, and your support now will help ensure hockey stays local and our children have fun and grow up with their Twisters hockey families!
As mentioned, we very much appreciate everyone's continued help and support of our fundraising initiatives and look forward to another fun and exciting year of Grand Valley Twisters hockey!
Sincerely,
Meghan McCauley-Brown
Executive Fundraising Director