Our recent Childhood Cancer Awareness Night with the Dubuque Fighting Saints and Paramount Ambulance was a rousing success! Over 2,000 people came out to celebrate kids with cancer, dress up as a Harry Potter character, enjoy a USHL hockey game – or all three! Whatever the reason for joining us, we appreciate it.
As you may have seen, in addition to their gold shoelaces & stick tape (did you notice their custom helmet stickers?), the Saints wore special Harry Potter themed jerseys that were designed just for this game. After the game, the 24 jerseys were auctioned off one by one to those in attendance. We could hardly believe it as each one went for more than the last, with the final jersey selling for a whopping $1,000! (thank you, Andrew!)
Thanks to powerhouse volunteers, Connor, Gabe, & Sue, our 50/50 raffle ticket sales topped $1900 for the event – of which Compass to Care received half. (Did you win the other half?) Adding this to the jersey sales, the Fighting Saints were able to present us a check for $10,614!
Once we added in all the proceeds from our Replace The Lace shoelace sales for this event and other donations we received, the total raised was over $11,000! Volunteers Kathy, Kate & Randy sure helped keep things running smoothly during the game, too – thank you all!
The night was not only about raising funds to help kids get to cancer treatment, but in celebrating those affected by childhood cancer. Our friend, and childhood cancer survivor, Savanna Flynn, started things off with a ceremonial puck drop. Compass to Care helped the Flynn family in 2013, when Savanna needed to travel to treatment for a rare liver cancer. Just two days before the hockey game, she was officially pronounced “five years cancer free”!
Our very own Mike & Sandy Ernsdorff were honored as the DuTrac Community Credit Union Hometown Heroes, for without them, there would be no Compass to Care. Their willingness and determination to get their daughter, and our founder, Michelle, to her cancer treatments as a child, no matter how difficult it was for their family, exemplifies the very definition of a Hometown Hero.
Even while standing out on the ice, Sandy kept saying,”I’m not a hero. We’re not heroes.” The overwhelming response from the crowd would say otherwise, Sandy.
We also want to thank the Hogwarts (UD) students for their special appearance. Your joy added a magical aura to the ice arena – we hope you had as much fun playing quidditch, as the Harry Potter fans had watching!
We want to send a big THANK YOU to our friends at Paramount Ambulance! Because without their sponsorship of this event, it would not have been as big of a success. We are always honored to have the continued support of such amazing people.
Our biggest THANK YOU goes out to the entire Dubuque Fighting Saints community, including, but not limited to:
Nick, Casey, Katie, Brian, Jack, and the rest of the office staff for tirelessly working to make it all happen.
Mascot Bernie, for traveling around the tri-states with Casey to help us promote the event, and posing for endless photos with adoring fans.
The players, for making Savanna, Xela, CJ, and all of the kids at the game feel special – posing for photos, waving, scoring that first goal for them, tossing pucks into our section.
And of course, the fans – your enthusiasm, your heartwarming support for our mission, and your overwhelming generosity, absolutely made all of us “Saints for life!”