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TGIMFF! Yeah, had to add a few extra letters to the typical TGIF. you know I can’t help myself!
This post is for my amazing friend Joel, who you may know as Dambreaker (go check out his blog!). He plays sled hockey, which is an adaptive sport of hockey for people with physical disabilities. He’s been playing for over five years and is co-assistant captain of his team in Austin, Texas. Yay Joel!
Where your Super Hero-ness comes into play is that he needs our help to raise money to participate in a national sled hockey tournament, which will be held in Boston, Massachusetts (Go Boston!) in Spring of 2014. He has joined with another player on his team to be able to go as his team in Austin is not willing to help individual players get to the tournament (dammit, that sucks). So Joel and his buddy are on his own in this adventure.
They were able to attend the tournament in 2012 which was closer to home in Dallas (Woo hoo!). It was their first time ever entering into any tournament competition and they arrived back home — WINNING THE BRONZE. Pretty dang good for their first time!!!!
Unfortunately, funds were lacking last year and the team was not willing to spend anything to go to the 2013 tournament that was held in Philadelphia.
I’m so inspired by him–I can’t even imagine the dedication it takes to play sled hockey having a physical disability. My lazy ass has a hard time even getting off the sofa and I’m strong as an ox! Bless his heart for all the hard work he puts into it.
Being the determined and hard working man he is, he’s enlisted people who adore him to help out in his amazing journey. He’s working with the Cape Cod Cookie Company who will give a dozen FREE assorted cookies to the highest donation. I’m donating 2 signed copies of each of my three books to the cause. We all want him to succeed!
If you want to help Joel on his journey, you can! Whether you can only afford $.50 or $50 doesn’t matter–every little bit helps as he and his sled hockey teammate have to pay for everything on their own, including food, travel, hotel, strippers (KIDDING!). Here is the donation site: http://www.gofundme.com/2t2pvs
I asked Joel to do some research and write a little bit about the safety of the site so that no one worries about security, and also write a little bit about how he feels about his sport. Here’s what he says, “Because the other player and I saw that there wasn’t any help coming from the team, we decided to go vigilante. Sammy and I LOVE playing the sport! It’s in our veins. And we also love the fact that we are introducing something such as sled hockey to a new group of people who never knew that the sport even existed. The USA even has its own national team. Which is MY DREAM to be a part of. The last Paralympics that was held in 2012, the USA brought home the GOLD medal and has brought home many gold medals from annual worldwide tournaments since then, playing against such sled hockey powerhouses such as Norway and of course, Canada. There IS a team in Phoenix. They are pretty bad ass (from me: of course they are!). The donation site is secure for payment. I’ve never heard of anyone having problems with this site and they have helped out millions of people from teenagers wanting to go on missionary trips to helping the families of victims of recent national tragedies, such as the Boston marathon bombing, hurricane victims in the Gulf, and the victims of the Aurora massacre.”
If you can help Joel out with a donation, that would be great! If you can’t afford to, feel free to send him well-wishes here or on his blog. Any happy vibes coming his way are good!
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I know he appreciates and I certainly do too! Much love!
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