Blind Hockey Canada skates across Ontario for 10-day fundraiser

Ten days of skating celebrating 10 years of achievements. A 1,000-km challenge. A $100,000 fundraising goal.

Those are the numbers surrounding the #COURAGE21 Inline Skate Fundraising being put on by Blind Hockey Canada.

Kicking off on September 1 in Windsor, ON, and concluding on September 11 in Ottawa, Canadian Blind Hockey players Mark DeMontis, Kelly Serbu, Francois Beauregard, Matt Shaw, and their guides Marc Lafortune, PJ Power, Luca DeMontis and Matt Morrow will inline relay-skate 100 kilometres a day, with the goal of continuing to elevate awareness the para sport of blind hockey, and to raise $100,000 in support of Canadian Blind Hockey programming coast-to-coast.

#COURAGE21 is also celebration of what has been achieved over the past decade and honours an important anniversary for Canadian Blind Hockey. The charity was founded by bockey player Mark DeMontis, who is blind, when he inline skated from Toronto to Vancouver in 2009, and then from Halifax to Toronto in 2011. #COURAGE21 marks the 10th anniversary of the completion of Mark’s cross-Canada journeys, which created the necessary funds to begin to grow blind hockey to where it is today.

“The vision has always been focused on giving kids who were blind or partially sighted the opportunity to play hockey, and it is incredible to see what has happened with the growth of the sport over the last 10 years,” said DeMontis. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than another inline skate with some teammates through my home province of Ontario and to raise some much-needed funds to keep the vision going for the next 10 years.” 

The #COURAGE21 campaign will visit the following Ontario communities in the coming days:

Wednesday, September 1: Windsor, Chatham 

Thursday, September 2: London

Friday, September 3: Brantford

Saturday, September 4: Hamilton, Mississauga, Weston 

Sunday, September 5: Toronto 

Monday, September 6: Oshawa

Tuesday, September 7: Belleville 

Wednesday, September 8: Kingston

Thursday, September 9: Gananoque, Brockville

Friday, September 10: Smiths Falls, Kanata 

Saturday, September 11: Ottawa

In addition to inline skating 100 kilometres per day, Canadian Blind Hockey will be hosting campaign events in communities along the way including a departure event in Windsor and an arrival celebration and Blind Hockey game at TD Place Arena in Ottawa on Saturday, September 11.

For more information and to make a donation, visit the Canadian Blind Hockey website.