By Alex Mahar
BELLEVILLE– The Trenton Golden Hawks will be receiving some national attention.
The Golden Hawks will take to the ice on Feb. 8 at the Duncan McDonald Memorial Community Gardens in front of a national audience against the Markham Royals on CHCH TV.
The team put in a bid for a national game last season but weren’t successful. This year they were awarded the game.
With the national attention, the Golden Hawks have started a joint initiative with the Trenton Memorial Hospital Foundation called Faceoff for Foundation.
“We talked to our sponsors about building up the event so that it’s something the entire community can be proud of. We have partnered with the TMHF in the past and this seemed to be a logical expansion of that partnership,” said Golden Hawks assistant general manager Alex Guiney.
The national fundraising will help with the hospital’s budget gaps.
“The Ministry of Health funds operations, utilities and staffing but not capital equipment. We depend on that equipment to give patients the health care they deserve,” said TMHF executive director Wendy Warner.
Warner adds that the foundation is excited for the national attention to show young people the importance of having a well equipped hospital close to home.
“The goal for the fundraiser is to raise over $10,000 towards hospital equipment. We are going to auction off game worn special edition jerseys, collect donations and open a coast-to-coast online auction,” said Guiney.
This isn’t the first time that the Golden Hawks and TMHF have partnered up. The G-Hawks helped with both the foundations fashion show and gala earlier this year. The Hawks also participated in the beds races back for TMHF fundraiser in June.
“Our partnership with the Hawks has inlightened a lot of young men that the hospitals is always here when they need it. A lot of the time young healthy people don’t realize the importance of having well equipped hospitals close to hope. Our partnership has helped share that message,” said Warner.