Hockey Helps the Homeless raises nearly $200k for local agencies

London Cares, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Indwell will benefit after Hockey Helps the Homeless raised nearly $200,000. Brent Lale reports.

For a decade, Londoners have been scoring goals for those in need.

“Homelessness is getting bad here in London and all over Canada and we just want to help the cause,” said Josh Demelo, who is captaining the top fundraising team in the tournament. “There is nothing better than playing hockey, hanging out with the pros and raising some money.”

The Demelo family was the presenting sponsor and brought in more than $32,000 for London Cares, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) and Indwell.

Even organizers set a fundraising goal of $175,000 for the local event, but prior to puck drop they had already blown past that number.

“Indwell is very grateful to Hockey Helps the Homeless (HHTH) for raising all this money for us,” said Julie Ryan, community engagement coordinator for Indwell. “We are going to be able to build 100 new units. They are not yet announced but we will announce them later this month here in London. That’s on top of the nearly 400 that we already have open or in under construction.”

Ryan says their organization does get government funding but relies on community support.

“We’re excited that that this money will be some of the first community funding for that next project,” he said.

HHTH has been going for 30 years and gives everyday players a chance to live and feel like a pro.

The idea of this event is to give everyday players a chance to live and feel like a pro.

“Every year we try to give the average, everyday hockey player a chance to live and feel like a pro,” said Eric Luczak of HHTH.

“We bring NHL alumni and other alumni including great London Knights representation here. Every team gets a chance to draft one of those folks to play alongside them for the day. But it’s so much more than that. It’s the drinks and snacks set up in the dressing room. It’s lunch and breakfast catered for them in the morning but also the raising money for the organizations here in London,” he added.

Former Montreal Canadiens forward Gilbert Dionne was one of the drafted pros.

“The first game is always a ‘Who’s this Dionne guy?’” said Dionne. “I said ‘Hey, here’s one thing, I’m an offensive player, so when the puck gets to me in the slot it’s not going back to you, it’s going in the net.’”

Just minutes after saying that, he scored a pair of goals for his team.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 plus years and especially in London, the money is staying local,” added Dionne. “That’s the best part that we enjoy about this. Some forget that 1993 was over 32 years ago and we were the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup. I’ll have some stories to tell about my older brother Marcel, and the dressing room will be fun.”

The nearly $200,000 raised will go a long way to helping the three local organizations move people into permanent housing.

“If we keep doing it every year, let’s see where this goes,” said Demelo.