Freedom 55 Financial Thunder Bay Hockey Celebrity Golf Classic A Great
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Freedom 55 Financial Hockey

Freedom 55 Financial Thunder Bay Hockey Celebrity Golf Classic A Great
Success

by Scott A. Sumner

www.thunderbaybusiness.ca

  The Freedom 55 Celebrity Golf Classic tournament is really one of the golf events of the year. In light of the run up to the Stanley Cup and NW Ontario doing so well in putting out players, it is really just a celebration. There is getting together and raising money for a good cause at the same time. “We have many hockey players to choose from. It is really great to see these players giving back to our community and supporting our cancer program. The money goes to the Northern Cancer Fund to support the chemotherapy unit,” said Glen Craig, President and
CEO of the Health Sciences Foundation. “There are over 160 players, 4 person teams plus the hockey player. There are about ten teams that couldn’t get in this year. Some tournaments are struggling to fill up and this one has a huge waiting list.We have a few dozen volunteers out
today. We really appreciate Freedom 55, who has a lot of community minded people. It is had to find anyone whose life has not been touched by cancer. We have an excellent facility here in Thunder Bay and we are on par or better than any facility in  Ontario. Tournaments like this
help provide equipment to really put the tools in place that are needed.”

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Local hockey star Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins has been a strong supporter of the event. This year he was on crutches but was still ready to participate. “I will do full putts and chips and hang out. I have the same injury from the playoffs when I came back a little too soon and guess it came back to bite me. We had surgery again in  Pittsburgh and now I am on doctor’s order to stay off my leg as best I can for about a month and then I will be back to rehab and working out,” said Jordan Staal.
   Staal has an interesting life for sure. Game day is a routine morning skate, a meal at the Olive Garden or something like that, a little nap and then it is off to the rink to focus on the game.“I have gotten a lot more notice especially in the last year in Pittsburgh... The fans are getting crazier and crazier there. It is a lot of fun playing in front of those fans and Pittsburgh is definitely a sports town. When you are out shopping, there are few people who will bug you but I just put my hat down as low as I can and try and cruise through. It’s not bad as I don’t get as much as Sid or Dino do. Sid is an unbelievable player just his work ethic and how he leads the team on the ice, is really special. It is really fun to be on the team and be a part of that,” noted Staal. “On our off game days it is practice in the morning and just killing some time in the afternoon whether I go to a movie or just hang out. This season was pretty tough. There were a lot of games throughout the Olympic season with a lot of games crammed into one another. It made it really tough to do some stuff.”

 " Everyone in our family comes home in the summer to Shebandewon. I am in town quite a bit as well hanging out with the family. I never really envisioned any of this for sure. When you are playing hockey at 7 or 8 years old, you want to play in the NHL but have no idea what’s going to happen. Things came together for our family and we are really fortunate and it is a lot of fun. My brother Jay is working hard and has a ways to go but he is opening the door and seeing what he can prove and heading in the right direction...” said Staal. This season it will be fun to see 4 Staal brothers in the  NHL!



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