Chris Frank of the Cardiff Devils (EIHL) knows it’s not about how much money you can spend on a child, or whether you’re able to provide them with the most elaborate gifts, that counts. Being a professional hockey player puts you in the unique position to put a smile on a kid’s face who might otherwise be down during the holidays.
Chris wanted to allow as many people as possible to contribute to his Give Moore for the Holidays campaign this season. The team decided to work with a local church and their program called “Big Wrap” which involves local kids in social services, as well as an organization called Llamau that works with potentially homeless, at-risk youth and vulnerable women. Providing both of these organizations with the opportunity to be involved in Give Moore for the Holidays gave the Devils many more exciting holiday memories to offer to many more kids.
For the local church’s “Big Wrap” program they gave bears from a home game’s Teddy Bear Toss along with a Devil’s gift bag. The bag contained team programs, tickets to games, and board games for the kids. They also invited kids from the church to come skate with the Devils, have lunch with the players, as well as pass out a few extra gifts that they had been saving just for that occasion. The group of kids who got to participate in this day ranged from 7 to 17 years old.
When deciding the best way to help the Llamau organization a few guys from the team met with the Director of Fundraising and came up with the idea of a donation page. Players pumped up the site through Facebook, Twitter, and spread the word to everyone they spoke with during the holidays. The team office staff was able to back the initiative and spread the word through all of their media sites as well. After three weeks of promoting the guys raised over £1800 for Llamau.
“The team was also able to bring 20 representatives from Llamau out to their first hockey game which they all seemed to really enjoy,” said Chris.
You can see Chris’s personal donation page here.
