Parry Sound’s U11 Sifft Electric Shamrocks are in the race to grab the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup.
That’s according to Stephanie Early, Team Manager. She says the team’s goal is to do as many good deeds within the community as they possibly can before March 4th.
According to Chevrolet’s website, the Good Deeds Cup is a challenge for eligible U11, U13 and U15 minor hockey teams registered with Hockey Canada to take the values they learn on the ice and use them to support their communities, off the ice.
Early says for each good deed the team posts to social media, they get a point and the team with the most points at the end of the contest can win $100,000 for the charity of their choice.
“As a group, we discussed we would love to split the money between The Drop and the Parry Sound Friendship Center youth programs. We want to help some youth groups here in town,” she says.
She says as of Thursday, Feb 23rd, the kids have completed nine good deeds.
The biggest one, Early says, was the “Fill The Net” campaign where the team hosted a food drive to help Harvest Share and the kids raised or gathered just over 500 pounds of food. “We were [also] up at Sobey’s last week and we helped package groceries, and offered grocery carryout. While the kids were there they did earn some tips which we talked about as a group and they understood that we couldn’t keep the tips because we were here doing good deeds,” she says.
Early says, as a result, the team left the tip money with the McGregor family, owners of Sobey’s, adding they were going to get in touch with Harvest share again to see what else was needed this week and make a food donation on the team’s behalf.
“So we’re now reaching out to the community to help, anybody in the community over the age of 13 can post a good deed to any social media outlet and as long as they tag the Sifft Shamrocks and [include] #GoodDeedsCup #contest and then tag Chevrolet, [the Shamrocks] can earn points towards our team total which will help us win that money,” she says.
Through this program, Early says the kids are to use the skills that they learn off the ice and apply them in the community. “Determination, teamwork, and leadership, [so] in the end we are not just making better hockey players, we are making better people,” she says.