UNB Hosts Charity Hockey Game

In November of 2010,14-year-old girl and an avid hockey fan Darren Richardson committed suicide. Her friends, family and classmates started raising mental health awareness, starting the “Do it for Darren” fund. Nine years later, the organization is still receiving plenty of attention.

On February 23, the UNB intramural hockey teams came together to create the “house cup” game. This hockey game would be to raise mental health awareness, with all the games profit going to the Do it for Darren organization.

“I think it’s great,” Matt Bonnell, a player playing for Team Harrison said. “Raising awareness for this is a great thing and getting out and having a bit of fun playing hockey, it’s a great way to do it.”

Though this was just a charity hockey game which was all for fun, that did not stop the fans from coming out to support their players. Team Mackenzie player Jack Buck said it was great to see so many people come out to support the cause.

“The fans make it great,” Buck said. “It’s nice to see people get out and start cheering and all that kind of stuff. And really make a fun atmosphere for everyone.”

Buck’s team was not able to pull away with a victory, saying they could have played better. But for him and the players, it was not all about getting the win- it was about the ability to raise awareness while having fun.

“I mean, we probably could’ve did better, I mean, we lost the game but, you know, it’s all about having fun out there. We’re just here to raise awareness for the cause.”

Team Harrison won the game by a score of 3-1.