The fifth annual Hockey Helps Marathon took place in the Dix Hills, New York last weekend, September 1-2. 24 straight hours of ice hockey with the former NHLers and local beerleaguers helped to raise more than $2 million for some charities including Hockey Fights Cancer, Soulful Living for Recovery, North Shore Holiday House and the Smilezone Foundation USA.
Former professional players Adam Graves, Stephane Matteau, Brian Mullen, Benoit Hogue, Arron Asham and Colton Orr played along with volunteers and fans 24 games without any break between the games.
The event started at 10 am on Saturday and ended at 10 am the next day, the ten games were played between the seven men's teams and two women's teams. Each game consisted of two periods of 22 minutes running time and started at the top of the hour. The schedule was managed in the way each team had a 4-5 hours break without a game in the night to have a rest. There were locker rooms with mattresses where the players could sleep.
This event gathered a lot of different people who had the one aim - to help charities.
It's a game. It's a fun game. We've got girls playing, we've got moms, we've got older guys, younger guys, it means a lot. The money that they raise for this and what they do with it, it's a great feeling. I'm proud to be part of it.
On one of the women's teams played 11-year-old Skyla Peltzman, she was the youngest player in the Marathon and she scored a hat-trick in one of the games played.
The goal was to raise $850,000, and it was achieved: to the end of the game donations totalled $858,966. Also, there was the auction and the Hockey Helps Marathon T-Shirts were on sale. The total earnings of the event turned over $2 million.
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