Blues 2010-2011 Season and Off Season Charity Update

The off-season is here, but the Blues are still helping out the community and have released information of results of season-long charity and fundraising campaigns.

Throughout the season, the Blues had many charity nights and lots of events to help the community.  Here’s a run-down of what Blues fans contributed to help St. Louis during the season:

• Hockey Fights Cancer: In the month of October, the Blues hosted a Hockey Fights Cancer Weekend that raised over $25,00 for cancer charities.  The weekend featured a Hockey Fights Cancer night in Celebration of Mandi Schwartz and the annual Pink at the Rink event.  Mandi has since lost her battle with cancer, but her memory continues to raise awareness for cancer research and marrow donation across the hockey world.  Along with the money raised, the Blues gave $5,000 grants to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Friends of Kids with Cancer.
• Blues Blood Drive: The annual St. Louis Blues and American Red Cross Blood Drive had enough participants donated to save over 1,100 lives this year.
• Blues Casino Night: The theme of this year’s Blues Casino Night was the “BlueNote Speakeasy.” Blues players were on hand in their finest 1920′s garb to raise money for the Blues 14 Fund.  In addition, there were live and silent auctions to raise money.  The event raised more than $80,000 for the 14 Fund this year.
• Blues Dream Night: This year’s Blues Dream Night was unfortunately cancelled due to icy conditions and never got rescheduled.  However, the Blues players came together to make a $25,000 donation to Dream Factory and Camp Rainbow.  In addition to the team donation, David Perron donated $10,000 (a portion was his Twitter follower challenge) and TJ Oshie donated $4,000.  Even without the charity night these two groups received a great donation from the players.

Cam Janssen’s Checks for Charity: At the beginning of the Blues season, Cam Janssen pledged to donate $25 for every hit that he made during the season.  In 54 games played, Janssen totaled 95 hits.  Cam ended up donating $2,375 to the Fisher House foundation.  In addition, Window World of St. Louis matched Cam’s donation, for a total of $4,750 going to help military families.  Unfortunately, Cam won’t be around next season, but we appreciate all he did for his home town while he played here.

Good Friday Tornado Relief: On Good Friday, the St. Louis area was devastated by storms.  Lambert Airport and many homes and businesses were damaged.  As the area started recovering, the 14 Fund donated $10,000 to the American Red Cross to help those families affected by storm damage.  The players matched that donation, for a total of $20,000 donated to help storm victims.

Joplin Tornado Food Drive: Everyone in the area, and probably the nation, has heard about the Joplin tornado.  155 people have died as a result of the storm, and hundreds more have been left with storm damage or,  even worse, homeless.  The St. Louis Blues decided to help out these storm victims by hosting a food drive for Joplin.  Blues players gathered to meet fans to collect donations outside of Scottrade Center.  Players on hand included Ben Bishop, TJ Oshie, Tyson Strachan, Barret Jackman, Carlo Colaiacovo, Phil McRae, and Alex Pietrangelo.  The Blues collected 13,192 pounds of food- which equals 10,544 meals- for Joplin.  Even in the off season, the Blues, and Blues players, are willing to help the community they live in.

In the Library with Louie: This summer, the Blues have hosted summer reading events in St. Louis libraries for the youth in the community.  These events aim to get kids reading over the summer.  Louie, the big blue mascot who has taken a large presence in summer fundraising, will be on hand at each event.  At some events, Blues staff members will have hands on hockey demonstrations for the kids.  Children in St. Louis who attend one of the events with Louie will receive a free Blues preseason ticket.  Children can then set a summer reading goal, and can earn a free Blues ticket for meeting that goal.  For more information on which libraries are participating, check out the Blues site.

Komen Race for the Cure:  On June 11, the Blues had 2,550 team members participate in the Komen Race for the Cure.  Cam Janssen and Davis Payne and his wife co-chaired the event.  The Blues team raised more than $80,000 for the cause, $2,000 of which came from Louie’s fundraising 5K run.  For more information and to see how the BlueNoteZone helped the cause, check out my full Komen write up here.

The Blues may not be the best team in the league, but their efforts to give back to the St. Louis community, even during the off season, should be commended.  Watch for more information on ways to help the Blues give back throughout the season.