RED DEER – The 10th anniversary of the Curtis Glencross Charity Event achieved an impressive goal – breaking the $2 million mark in funds raised for the Hockey Alberta Foundation and Ronald McDonald House Charities® Alberta.
“It’s unbelievable,” Glencross said of the event which has been ongoing for a decade in one iteration or another. “We had the rodeo for the first few years and have now transferred over to the charity hockey tournament. It’s been a hit; everyone loves it, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger every year.”
This is the second consecutive year the event hit the ice as four teams battled for the Glencross Charity Camp Championship at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre in Red Deer. Each of the four teams was led by a celebrity coach, featured 15 skaters as well as a goalie and was manned with five celebrity players per team. The team coached by former Calgary Flame Joel Otto took home the win in the tournament final.
“It’s exciting for a lot of the non-NHL guys to be able to come here and play with guys who played at that level,” Otto said of the atmosphere on the ice during the tournament. “Troy Brouwer, Jamie Macoun, Kyle Brodziak, to have the skill they do at the age that they are, I think it’s surreal for them to lace up the skates and play a game with them. It’s an awesome event, a lot of fun and it’s truly a great time.”
Glencross echoed that sentiment of having former NHLers mixed in with people of all skill levels.
“It’s great, it makes it fun. For us alumni, it’s great because we can get out there and chirp back and forth with each other,” Glencross said.
“But at the same time, it’s good humour. We get chirped all the time too. We’ve got a really good group of sponsors and when you have a good group of sponsors, it turns into a good group of people out on the ice.”
The evening was wrapped up with the 10th annual Glencross Invitational Charity Poker Event at Western Park. Kurt Bensmiller took home the trophy buckle as the event winner.
“Red Deer as a whole is such a generous community and we’re so fortunate to have the Calgary Flames Foundation and ATB,” Glencross said. “ATB has been great with us since day one and have been our title sponsor for eight years now so to have the two of them and get the generosity from all our sponsors here in Red Deer is unbelievable.”
