HYHA Awarded gear from NHLPA
Hopkins Youth Hockey Association (HYHA) and National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) Goals and Dreams Are Teaming Up:
NHL Players to Donate 25 Sets of Equipment
HYHA is pleased to announce a donation of 25 brand new sets of hockey equipment, courtesy of the NHLPA’s Goals & Dreams fund.
The donation will help children in our community participate in hockey. The equipment will be available for the 2015-16 season and will include skates, sticks, and helmets. The ability to provide full sets of equipment will be a critical help to some of our families and the fact that HYHA will not be purchasing all of the required equipment for the Try Hockey For Free program is a critical help to our organizational budget.
The specific objective of Try Hockey for Free is to attract new skaters to HYHA who will develop a life long love for the game and ultimately play for the Hopkins High School girls or boys team. Our program is unique because HYHA takes a 3 prong approach. First, new skaters in the Mite age group do not pay a clinic or season registration fee. Second, skaters in the Mite age group who are new to the program can obtain a free set of equipment. Finally, second year and older skaters can request equipment and scholarship funds to enable their skater to participate. The award of 25 full sets of equipment makes a significant impact.
In 1999, the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) launched the Goals & Dreams fund as a way for the players to give something back to the game they love. The players’ program has donated full sets of hockey equipment that has benefited more than 70,000 economically challenged children in 32 countries and assisted with upgrades and the building of hundreds of arenas world-wide. To date, Goals & Dreams has donated more than $22-million to grassroots hockey programs around the world making it the largest program of its kind.
For more information on the NHLPA, please visit www.nhlpa.com