CHARITY SHIELD TO CONTINUE and fans raise for charity too!
After its introduction by the GMB Panthers last season, ice hockey's Charity Sheild will be staged for a second year with Coventry hosting Sheffield in September meanwhile fans from across the country will be raising cash for a kids charity too.
Nottingham beat Coventry in the first ever fund-raising curtain opener in British ice hockey and the trophy from the Charity Shield has been over to Coventry in readiness for when the Blaze are to host play-off champs Sheffield at the beginning of September.
GMB Panthers' GM Gary Moran said : "We started the Charity Sheild thing a year ago hoping it could become an annual event. Everyone talked about it being a good idea and we raised a lot of money for the sports' development and for charity. It is great to see Coventry picking up the baton and taking it on, and hopefully it will just become an annual thing now, there's a lot of hard work involved, I know, but it is worth it in the end and sports like ours are in a great position to give back to the community."
Coventry coach Paul Thompson added : “The Charity Shield was a great introduction last season and it does raise a lot of money for good causes. Both Sheffield and ourselves really wanted to keep this going in the hockey calendar and we are delighted to be hosting it this year. It’s great fun but very competitive and it should be a great last game before we get down to regular season action.”
Meanwhile the GMB Panthers will be doing their bit for charity throughout the coming season when they will hook up with a major new sponsor so watch this space.
In the meantime fans will be taking part when supporters from across the country gather at Ice Sheffield in a fortnight's time to raise funds for the kids charity Dreams Come True. Among the fundraisers will be Nottingham's Ian Irwin and you can support him and check out more details at http://www.justgiving.com/ianirwin Also helping to raise funds will be Chris Whittaker and you can find out more details at www.justgiving.com/cjwhittaker
The event is on the weekend of July 19/20. Please give what you can for a worthy cause.