Community Service Impact in Sport

Being an athlete on a team with a big fan base, giving back to the community is something every player and staff member looks forward to. For the past six months, I have been blessed with the opportunity to play hockey for the best fans in the country. Every single home game, the energy and encouragement from the fans provide an environment that motivates our team to perform to the best of our abilities. 

To show our appreciation to our fan base, the least we could do is give back to the community. With our fans being all different ages, there are many different ways that we can serve the community. Every week, there is a different event for us to attend to show our love and appreciation to the people. With our fan base being around 5,000 people, there is a different event that we can attend to show our love and appreciation to all the people. The event that I enjoy the most is going to the elementary schools and reading to all the little kids. When we walk into the classrooms with our jerseys on, it is such a heartwarming feeling to see the big smiles on their happy little faces. We all split up and get to have a little one on one time with each kid in the class. After reading their books and spending time with them, all the kids go to the cafeteria for lunch while the players get to go around and sign autographs for the kids. It is an awesome experience every time we get to interact with them especially when we see those same kids showing up to our games on the weekends. 

Another activity that I really enjoy is going to the retirement homes. Even though this community isn’t our biggest part of the fan base, they still play all of our games on the tv’s throughout the facility. When we show up, there are many different things that we can do to interact with them such as helping to serve food, playing board games, and my favorite, dance class. To see the older people be able to get active and dance to music from their time brings so much joy to their day and a positive vibe to the community. 

Without the environment that our fans bring every night, we wouldn’t be the team we are today so giving back keeps our fans happy and shows them our appreciation that they deserve.

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