Achi news desk-
A group of dedicated athletes are in the middle of what can seem like an endless hockey game at Chestermere Leisure Centre.
The Kids’ Hockey Marathon started on Friday, April 5 and has been going non-stop ever since. Players work in four-hour shifts, toiling away on the ice for a cause greater than the final score.
Team Hope and Team Cure face off, rallying behind a cause close to their hearts: raising money and awareness for pediatric cancer. All proceeds from this 262-hour long hockey game will go to the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.
“It’s a never-ending cycle of skating and sleep,” says Melanie Sortland of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. “We are in complete awe and admiration.”
The game began in 2012 when 40 men took to the ice to raise money for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation while attempting to break the Guinness Book of World Records for most consecutive hours of ice hockey play. Since then, it has grown.
Families, along with children battling cancer, have been stopping by the arena, cheering on the players, many of whom wear a patient’s name on their backs.
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“It’s pretty special to see their own name on the back of their jerseys,” Sortland said. “It means a lot.”
In order to beat their own world record, the 43 players competing in 2024 will have to play 262 consecutive hours, or around 11 and a half days.
“It’s for the kids,” said Kyle Fagnan, who is playing in the marathon for the fourth time. “We hear these stories and the impact of making treatments go from three years to a year.”
When asked how sore he was about 80 hours into it, Fagnan is optimistic, saying: “I feel pretty good. It’s amazing what the body does to adapt to the event.”
The 2024 game will run until April 16. As of Tuesday, the Kids’ Hockey Marathon raised $547,274.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
